Interview Me
A few weeks ago at the ACFW conference, I promised Ginger over at the Christian Romance Magazine a video interview—you know, one where a question flashes up on the screen and I answer it to the camera as if a real person were interviewing me. I could come up with some stock questions based on interviews I’ve done in the past, but how interesting is that? So I decided to let y’all interview me.
What questions would you want to ask me in a video interview?
Of course, once it gets posted on Christian Romance Magazine, I’ll post the link to it here.
It Just Isn’t Fun Anymore
“What do you do when writing just isn’t fun anymore?”
This question was asked of me after my local group meeting Saturday morning. The member who asked it is someone who’s been struggling with their calling—their identity—as a writer, even questioning if they have been called to be a writer. God has been working in certain areas of this person’s life which has led them to make decisions to whittle out certain things, and much of that affected the writing.
“I feel like I should be writing, but I just can’t.”
I’ve never spoken to a writer, published or unpublished, who hasn’t felt this way. I’ve felt this way before (after completing my second full manuscript in 2002—I actually remember saying to a family member that I wasn’t sure if I’d ever write again).
There is a difference between “not feeling like writing” and “can’t write.” No, writing isn’t always going to be fun. Just like running a marathon, there are going to be those walls we’re going to have to face and break through. No, we’re not always going to feel like writing every day. But that’s when the shoulds should kick in. Most of us, if we discipline ourselves to go ahead and sit down to meet that daily quota, once we get into it, we find we get lost in the story and we actually enjoy it.
But what about when the words don’t come? When cleaning a rest-area bathroom with a Q-tip is preferable to writing? When you’re tired, when you’re stressed, when life interferes, or when God isn’t speaking to you one way or the other?
What do you do when this happens?
Stop.
I know most of you reading this are currently unpublished. You are at a unique place in your writing journey at which you don’t have to feel obligated to write. You don’t have to force yourself to do it. While discipline in making yourself write every day is important, there comes a point in time when forcing yourself to write becomes negative reinforcement and may keep you from ever being able to do it successfully again.
There comes a time in every writer’s career (again, whether published or unpublished) when you just need to take a break and stop writing. Stop thinking about writing. Stop reading about writing. Stop talking about writing.
Take the time to read—read all those novels sitting in your TBR pile. Read the book of the year from every genre (either the Christy winners or the Carol winners). Read through the New York Times bestsellers list or the USA Today bestsellers list.
Watch movies—clear out your Netflix queue. Catch up on complete TV series like LOST, The Young Riders, Dragnet, or The Muppet Show.
Learn a new hobby or pick up an old one. Interested in photography in the past? Pick your camera up again. Want to learn how to knit? There’s someone at your church who would be more than happy to teach you. Have a bunch of family photos sitting around in boxes or on your computer? Go to Michael’s or Hobby Lobby, get a scrap-booking kit, and put some family albums together.
Refurbish and replenish your creative energy by channeling it into something else for a while; feed your brain by reading and indulging your imagination with movies and scripted TV shows; and then, when you get to the point at which you can’t think about anything else other than writing, start writing again.
Fun Friday: What’s On Your Desktop?
Yesterday, Debra mentioned that she has a still-shot from North & South on her computer desktop. So I thought it would be fun to share images of what kinds of images we have on our desktops/screensavers.
I use Webshots for my desktop background/screensaver—I’ve used it for years and years, since back before Windows came with the capability of anything but flying stars or bouncing logos or animated string-art for a screensaver. One of the things I love about it is that not only do they have images I can download (yes, there is a subscription cost for the premium/high-def images), but I can set up my own collections and add my own images.
So here are some of the collections/images I have (click on the thumbnail to view the full-size image):
Doorways/Windows/Pathways
There’s probably some psychological issue behind this, but back when I was still working full-time (for someone else, in an office) I became obsessed with doors, windows, gates, and pathways.
Novel/Series in Progress
Of course, I have to have a set (or several, since they’re limited to the number of images that will fit in each set) for the novel/series I’m currently writing—which, of course, at this time happens to be The Art of Romance in the Matchmakers series:
Places I’ve Lived
If you’ve been around awhile, or if you’ve read my bio, you know that I’ve lived a bunch of different places in my life: Alaska, New Mexico, Louisiana, Northern Virginia/Washington DC, and Nashville. So, of course, I have collections of images of those places for when I get nostalgic. (I picked two of Nashville, because I’ve lived here the longest—and because that set is currently part of my Novel-in-Progress rotation.)
National Parks/Monuments
Sometimes, I just want beautiful scenery. That’s when I turn on my National Parks collections. (And this collection is why I don’t actually have a separate Northern Virginia/Washington DC collection for Places I’ve Lived.)
Seasons
I have three different seasonal folders: Fall, Winter, and Spring—because I actually look forward to those seasons. In the heat of August, I’ll turn on the Fall and Winter collections. By the time I’m tired of the cold, I’ll turn on the Spring collection. I don’t have a summer collection because I don’t enjoy summer, so I included two from Fall.
Christmas
Since I don’t do a lot of decorating for Christmas around the house (as I’ve never actually spent Christmas at my house in the fourteen years I’ve had my own place), I “decorate” the computer with images of Christmas.
Want to Go
Of course, my collection wouldn’t be complete without images of places I’m dreaming of visiting. I think you’ll be able to tell what place is currently at the top of my list!
What’s on your desktop?
Costume Drama Thursday: NORTH & SOUTH (Gaskell)
It appeared to Mr. Thornton that all these graceful cares were habitual to the family; and especially of a piece with Margaret. She stood by the tea-table in a light-coloured muslin gown, which had a good deal of pink about it. She looked as if she was not attending to the conversation, but solely busy with the tea-cups, among which her round ivory hands moved with pretty, noiseless daintiness. She had a bracelet on one taper arm, which would fall down over her round wrist. Mr. Thornton watched the re-placing of this troublesome ornament with far more attention than he listened to her father. It seemed as if it fascinated him to see her push it up impatiently, until it tightened her soft flesh; and then to mark the loosening—the fall. He could almost have exclaimed—“There it goes, again!” There was so little left to be done after he arrived at the preparation for tea, that he was almost sorry the obligation of eating and drinking came so soon to prevent his watching Margaret. She handed him his cup of tea with the proud air of an unwilling slave; but her eye caught the moment when he was ready for another cup, and he almost longed to ask her to do for him what he saw her compelled to do for her father, who took her little finger and thumb in his masculine hand, and made them serve as sugar-tongs. Mr. Thornton saw her beautiful eyes lifted to her father, full of light, half-laughter and half-love . . .
When Mr. Thornton rose up to go away, after shaking hands with Mr. and Mrs. Hale, he made an advance to Margaret to wish her good-bye in a similar manner. It was the frank familiar custom of the place; but Margaret was not prepared for it. She simply bowed her farewell; although the instant she saw the hand, half put out, quickly drawn back, she was sorry she had not been aware of the intention. Mr. Thornton, however, knew nothing of her sorrow, and, drawing himself up to his full height, walked off, muttering as he left the house—“A more proud, disagreeable girl I never saw. Even her great beauty is blotted out of one’s memory by her scornful ways.”
North & South Chapter 10, by Elizabeth Gaskell
(Click here to listen to actor Greg Wise read this scene from the novel.)
If I ever go back for another master’s degree (which would be either in Rhetoric or in Literary Criticism) or a Ph.D., I already know that my thesis/dissertation would be some kind of a comparison between Pride & Prejudice and North & South. And I have to thank Ruth for introducing me to the latter. If it weren’t for her, I would have missed out on this precious gem of a costume drama and the uber-sexy Richard Armitage.
The piece playing over these scenes, “Northbound Train,” is one of my favorite pieces of music ever!
Here’s a scene that is one I would focus on in my dissertation comparison of P&P and N&S:
And here’s the scene where, if you weren’t already in love with John Thornton/Richard Armitage, you fell in love with him:
Aside from the fact that I can totally understand why, in the early 19th century, men were not supposed to appear in their shirt-sleeves in front of women as it was too tantalizing (it was considered the equivalent of being seen in one’s underwear), the transformation in these two characters and the development of their relationship from mutual loathing (but still finding each other attractive) to the passion of being free to admit they love each other is what makes the ending so spectacular. Plus, a lot of my favorite BBC movies are really stingy with the kisses.
Richard Armitage on his role in North & South:
John Thornton (Richard Armitage) and Margaret Hale (Daniela Denby-Ashe) in North & South
My Quiver Full
God told me in 1999 that I am not supposed to have children. I can’t tell you what a relief this was to me. I hadn’t even been praying about it—all I was doing was sitting in the living room at my aunt and uncle’s house holding my three-week-old nephew. When I’ve shared this with people over the years, Christian women who have children argue with me that God would never tell me that. They will quote all of the scriptures about quivers full, blah, blah, blah, and how those mean that anyone who can bear children but chooses not to is sinning, or that I will never know what it’s like to be fully mature as a person or a Christian unless I have children.
Well, when God revealed to me that I wasn’t supposed to have children, He brought this particular passage to my attention:
- “Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child;
. . . . . Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed;
. . . . . For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous
. . . . . Than the sons of the married woman,” says the LORD.
“Enlarge the place of your tent;
. . . . . Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not;
. . . . . Lengthen your cords
. . . . . And strengthen your pegs.
“For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left
. . . . . And your descendants will possess nations
. . . . . And will resettle the desolate cities.
“Fear not, for you will not be put to shame;
. . . . . And do not feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced;
. . . . . But you will forget the shame of your youth,
. . . . . And the reproach of your widowhood* you will remember no more.”
(Isaiah 54:1–4, NASB)
*I have read a few commentaries that say singleness could be substituted here.
It’s no coincidence that I “accidentally” received a brochure in the mail about the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference almost exactly a year after God gave me that message. That I joined ACFW (then ACRW) right after Blue Ridge in 2001; that I started getting together with three other local ACFW members in 2003 or 2004; that ACFW had an annual conference here in Nashville in 2005; or that Middle Tennessee Christian Writers grew out of that conference because it was an idea I wouldn’t let go of (now more than thirty members strong and still growing); that my greatest joy at the 2010 ACFW conference came from watching my friends and mentees (my “minions” ;-)) succeed so dazzlingly.
It was God’s way of showing me why He’d told me I was never going to have children—because he’d prepared a different family for me, different “offspring” to give me to care for and to train and to watch grow and blossom into what He’s called them to be. And those “spiritual children” He gave me are every single person I’ve ever helped with their writing, everyone who’s ever sat in one of my classes, every contest entrant for whom I’ve ever done a critique, every author whose books I edit, everyone for whom God uses one of my books to touch their lives in a special way.
And I just want to thank all of you for the opportunity to do what God has called me to do.
Brown-Out
I won’t say that I’m going completely dark for the next eleven days as I work on an edit project and finish writing The Art of Romance, but I will be limiting my access to the Internet during that time (closer to next Friday, it may be a complete blackout).
Feel free to talk amongst yourselves here, though. I’ll need to take coffee breaks every so often and come hang out at the water cooler to see what’s going on while I’m on deadline.
Fun Friday: Geeking Out over CHUCK Guest Stars
In the past few months, I’ve been able to get caught up with back episodes of the comedy-spy-action-adventure TV series Chuck. Anyone who knows me knows I’ve had a celebrity crush on Adam Baldwin for a very, very long time. So now that I’ve cut out so much of what I had been watching on TV back in the days when I had a DVR, it’s allowed me to start watching shows I wanted to watch but never had time for, like Chuck.
The show is fun (though I could live with a whole lot less of Jeff and Lester), and one of the things I’ve found the most fun about it is being surprised by the special guest stars in almost every episode—some for a series of episodes. I purposely avoid reading anything that might have spoilers (though I did find out who would be playing Chuck and Ellie’s mom before I even started watching the series)—I even try to avoid reading the opening list of guest stars because I like to be surprised when the guest star first appears on screen.
The casting directors have done a fabulous job getting the cream of the sci-fi/fantasy crop when it comes to guest stars, and I’m excited to see who’ll show up this season (especially given who’s already shown up). So I thought it would be fun to see just how geekilicious the guest stars on Chuck have been.
Chuck vs. the Season 1 Guest Stars
With “A Man Called Jayne” (Adam Baldwin) as one of the main characters on Chuck, the series was already off to a great start. But here are some of the highlight sci-fi/fantasy guest stars of the first season:
Tony Todd as CIA Director Graham: I first came to know Tony Todd through his role as Worf’s brother Kurn on Star Trek the Next Generation (and Deep Space 9) and as a Hirogen on Voyager. But he’s been in many, many sci-fi/fantasy shows (and a bunch of horror movies) as a guest star or regular cast member including: Night of the Living Dead, The X-Files, Xena and Hercules, Smallville, and Stargate SG-1.
Kevin Weisman as Reardon Paine (“Chuck vs. the Truth”): He just popped up in Flipped, and I’ve loved him ever since I first saw him on Alias. His geek creds also include Moonlight, Ghost Whisperer, Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The X-Files.
With only thirteen episodes, Chuck didn’t get off to too bad a start with “special” guest stars. But things started picking up when the show got picked up for another season.
Chuck vs. the Season 2 Guest Stars
Michael Clarke Duncan as Colt (“Chuck vs. the First Date”): Did you recognize him as soon as he came on screen? I first noticed MCD in his “biggest” role to date: as John Coffey in The Green Mile, but he has a pretty impressive geek movie resume: Armageddon, Planet of the Apes, The Scorpion King, and Daredevil.
John Larroquette as Roan Montgomery (“Chuck vs. the Seduction”): Okay, so he’s not really known for his sci-fi/fantasy creds, but come on, it’s Dan Fielding from Night Court . . . playing Dan Fielding as a washed-out CIA agent!
Melinda Clarke as Sasha Banacheck (“Chuck vs. the Seduction”): While I have known of her since my college days when she was a regular on Days of Our Lives, MC has some geek credits under her belt: The Vampire Diaries, Firefly (Nandi in “Heart of Gold”), Charmed, Star Trek: Enterprise, and Xena.
Mark Pellegrino as “Fulcrum Agent” (“Chuck vs. the Fat Lady”): As soon as he came on screen, the first words out of my mouth were: “It’s JACOB!” But only because I saw season two of chuck after LOST ended. Funny thing, in the episode, he was looking for “LaFleur’s list.” So did the LOST writers take Sawyer’s alias “LaFleur” from this episode of Chuck? He’s also appeared on Supernatural (as Lucifer—hmmm…), Being Human, Dexter, The X-Files, and as “Dude” in a episode of Doogie Howser, M.D..
Bruce Boxleitner and Morgan Fairchild as “The Awesomes” (“Chuck vs. the Sensei”): Were these not the perfect people to play Awesome’s parents? I mean, hello, Bruce Boxleitner was TRON. Have you seen the poster on Chuck’s wall??? (There’s also Scarecrow & Mrs. King, Chuck’s forerunner; Babylon 5, Heroes, and Tron: Legacy). Morgan Fairchild is better know for her soapy background, but has spent time in geekdom with guest spots on Roswell, The New Addams Family, Lois and Clark, and The Amazing Spiderman (1978).
Dominic Monaghan as Tyler Martin (“Chuck vs. the Third Dimension”): Charlie Pace was on Chuck!!! So now we know what actually happened to him when the grenade exploded in “Through the Looking Glass”—he was transported to Burbank. 🙂 He also gave Flashforward a whirl, but that didn’t last long. So it’ll be interesting to see where he shows up next.
Robert Picardo as Perseus (“Chuck vs. the Lethal Weapon”): “I’m a doctor, not a toaster.” Who doesn’t remember Robert Picardo as The Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager (and then across the Star Trek universe)? Okay, how about from the Stargate series?
Arnold Vosloo as Vincent Smith (“Chuck vs. the Predator/the Dream Job/the Colonel”). Unlike Imhotep in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, at least in Chuck he didn’t spend part of the time partially decayed and the other part mostly naked (although . . .)
Tricia Helfer as Agent Alex Forrest (“Chuck Versus the Broken Heart”): Oh, no, the Cylons are invading! As Number Six in Battle Star Galactica, Tricia Helfer cemented her place in every geek boy’s pantheon of hot babes.
SCOTT BAKULA as Steve Bartowski: Though he looks nothing like Chuck and Ellie, who could have been more perfect as their slightly loony, paranoid, but brilliant father than Dr. Sam Beckett/Captain Jonathan Archer? Though he’s run the gamut of TV sitcoms from Designing Women to Murphy Brown to The New Adventures of Old Christine, Scott Bakula is a king of the sci-fi/fantasy world because of Quantum Leap and Star Trek: Enterprise. And as if Scott Bakula weren’t enough . . .
Chevy Chase as Ted Roark: What a coup, to snag an actor of this magnitude for a 3-episode arc! Which leads us to…
Chuck vs. Season 3 Guest Stars
Armande Assante as Premier Allejandro Goya (“Chuck vs. the Coup d’Etat/the Angel de la Muerte”): Okay, so not really a lot of geek credits, but still, a pretty big name for this little show.
BRANDON ROUTH as Agent Daniel Shaw: Did John Williams’s “Superman” theme start running through anyone else’s head when the star of Superman Returns walked onto the set? And the male-eye-candy count just went up that much higher for this show that already boasted Awesome and Adam Baldwin (and, some would say, Zac Levi—not me, but some). And to have Chuck call Shaw “Superman” on screen—priceless!
Robert Patrick as Col. James Keller (“Chuck vs. the Tic Tac”): I recognized his voice before he even appeared on screen. And he’s one that once you’ve seen/heard him, you won’t easily forget him. Especially if you first saw him as T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day or as John Doggett in The X-Files.
Mark Sheppard as Ring Director (“Chuck vs. the Other Guy/the American Hero”): Another Joss Whedon/Firefly and Battle Star Galactica Alum. Geek central!
Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Leo Dreyfus (“Chuck vs. the Tooth”): Who better to diagnose Chuck’s descent into insanity but Dr. Emmett Brown from Back to the Future except for maybe Rev. Jim Ignatowski from Taxi?
Chuck vs. Season 4 Guest Stars ***Episode 1 & 2 SPOILERS***
LINDA HAMILTON as Mary Bartowski: When I heard over the summer that they’d cast Linda Hamilton as Chuck and Ellie’s father, that was before I knew Scott Bakula played their father. But after I saw SB as Steve Bartowski, I had to wonder if Chuck and Ellie are adopted! But they’ve wisely given Linda Hamilton a dark wig that makes her look a little more like Ellie. It’ll be interesting to see how her storyline plays into this season.
Harry Dean Stanton as The Repo Man (“Chuck vs. the Anniversary”): With 175 titles on his IMDb profile, need I say more (except The Green Mile)?
Lou Ferrigno as The Body Guard (“Chuck vs. the Suitcase”): I wish I hadn’t seen his name scroll across the screen, because being surprised by the presence of The (Original) Incredible Hulk would have been so fabulous! (And if Bronson Pinchot’s name hadn’t also flashed up on the screen, I never would have known that was he who was on the screen for all of about five seconds.)
Costume Drama Thursday: A Hazard of Hearts and The Lady & The Highwayman
…or, Why I’ve Never Liked Hugh Grant
It’s not often that I’ll subtitle a post, but this one deserves it, because today I’m discussing two made-for-TV movies that had quite an effect on me and my writing as a teenager, which have both recently become available on DVD.
A Hazard of Hearts
First aired: 1987
Starring Helena Bonham-Carter and Marcus Gilbert, co-starring Edward Fox, Neil Dickson, Christopher Plummer, Stewart Granger, Anna Massey, and Eileen Atkins.
Originally published in 1949, A Hazard of Hearts is one of the 723 novels penned by Dame Barbara Cartland (1901–2000). Her first novel, a “society thriller” published in 1923, became a bestseller in England, making her quite the popular socialite, who was known also for the risqué plays she wrote (one was even banned by the Lord Chamberlain’s office). As she grew older, she began writing rather tame romance novels—even going so far as to appoint herself an expert on romance. In 1983, Cartland was named the top-selling author by the Guinness Book of World Records. By the mid-1990s, her books had sold more than a billion copies, and Vogue magazine called her “the true Queen of Romance.”
A Hazard of Hearts tells the story of young Serena Staverly (Helena Bonham-Carter) whose genteel world is turned upside down when her wastrel father (Christopher Plummer) loses everything gambling—yet still cannot walk away, so puts up his house and his daughter’s hand in marriage as stakes. His opponent, the dastardly Lord Wrotham (Edward Fox), wants Serena and hoped for this outcome. But before Wrotham can capitalize on the opportunity, fate takes another twist when young, enigmatic Lord Justin, Marquess Vulcan, steps in to the game. Justin wins, Staverly kills himself (in the movie, apparently in the book he dies in a duel), and Serena must now give herself over to a fiancé she doesn’t know in a house full of secrets—secrets that could kill her.
This costume drama has it all—a Regency setting, a forced betrothal, a wealthy/titled/dark/secretive hero with a Bert-style unibrow, a wicked mother-in-law, a charming and affable father-in-law, mystery and intrigue, a villain who lacks only a mustache to twirl, kidnappings, poisonings, highwaymen, attempted rape, a duel, a ruined reputation, gambling, and . . . oh, yeah, and PIRATES!
This one is a must-watch for any historical romance lover—if for no other reason than to bask in its 1980s cheesiness, bad acting, and even worse music and cinematography. But at sixteen, when it first aired, I absolutely adored this movie. Unfortunately, we didn’t record it, or the tape got recorded over, so it wasn’t until more than twenty years later, when it came out on DVD for a short time, that I was able to get my hands on it. And it’s just as cheezilicious as I remembered! It doesn’t look like it’s available to purchase new through Amazon anymore, nor is it available through Netflix or Blockbuster (online). But you can watch it in pieces on YouTube starting here.
Now, speaking of cheezilicious . . .
The Lady & the Highwayman
First aired: 1989
Starring Hugh Grant, Lysette Anthony, and Emma Samms, co-starring Oliver Reed, Claire Bloom, Christopher Cazenove, and Michael York.
Originally published in 1952 under the title Cupid Rides Pillion, this is another adaptation of one of Barbara Cartland’s novels. Set during the turbulent years after the short-lived Commonwealth of England (after King Charles I was executed for treason following the English Civil War)—this movie takes place during the events surrounding King Charles II coming back to reclaim his royal position in England.
Lady Panthea Vyne (Lysette Anthony) is forced into marriage with a lecherous old tax collector (yet another villain in a Cartland novel who’s a lecherous old man) who gets her to agree to marry him by telling her that her brother has been arrested for treason and will be executed—but he can stop it, if she marries him. She does, but on their way back from the wedding, their carriage is ambushed by a highwayman—but not just any highwayman. It’s the notorious Silver Blade, the best swordsman in England. Silver Blade (Hugh Grant) kills the lecherous old man and discovers bags of gold in the carriage and Panthea is now a very wealthy widow. When she tells Silver Blade she married the old man to protect her brother, he sorrowfully tells her that her brother and her father are both dead. He knows this because, you see, Silver Blade is none other that Lord Lucius Vyne, Panthea’s cousin, and the heir to the Dukedom of Manston—which is coveted by another, more distant cousin, Rudolph, who, along with the king’s ex-mistress (Emma Samms) devises a scheme to get rid of Panthea (not knowing about Lucius, of course, as he’s returned to the country in secret and is known to all only as Silver Blade). Having fallen instantly in love with Silver Blade due to his rescue of her, and his gentlemanly conduct toward her as he takes her home on his own horse, Panthea does whatever she can to protect Silver Blade. Panthea’s cousin and the king’s mistress find the driver who witnessed Silver Blade’s rescue of Panthea and killing of her husband, which they twist into a charge of murder—conspiring with a highwayman to commit murder, specifically—leading to her arrest, trial, conviction, and sentence of execution. Will Silver Blade be able to save her in time?
Now, here’s the part where I explain the subtitle of today’s post . . .
Hugh Grant is absolutely horrendous in this film. Granted, he didn’t have a lot to work with in the way of script or direction. But because I fell in love with this movie when I was seventeen years old, and because I had it on video, I watched it over and over and over. And now, I cannot watch Hugh Grant in anything without seeing his totally melodramatic and over-the-top bad acting in The Lady and the Highwayman.
You can actually watch the entire movie on YouTube here. For the ultimate in cheese, scroll to 10:30 and watch the scene when Silver Blade rescues Panthea (the scene runs for about 10-12 minutes); 29:10 for the scene when Panthea realizes that Silver Blade is her cousin Lucius; 40:00 when Panthea sees her cousin as Lucius and not Silver Blade for the first time; 1:16:00 for when Emma Samms’ character tries to seduce Lucius when he’s awaiting execution; and 1:28:16 for the ultimate in cheezilicious endings. Oh, and when you watch it all the way through, be sure to look for the absolutely fabulous “eye acting” from Lysette Anthony, highlighted by the oh-so-subtle Eye Light lighting.
(And just in case you were expecting me to feature either Emma or Northanger Abbey today, I didn’t because I’ve discussed these films at length before, and since neither is a favorite, I figured four weeks devoted to Austen-based films were enough!)
Video Blogging?
The newest craze in blogging is video blogging. And I have to admit, I do kind of like this idea—so much that I even invested in a miniature video camera, a Flip camera, which can take up to two hours of video of a quality that’s perfect for the YouTube generation, then be plugged straight into the computer via a built-in USB plug for download.
I posted this a couple of weeks ago on my Facebook author page, but wanted to go ahead and share it here, too.
If I were to start doing a video blog once a week, what kinds of things would you like to see? Writing topics? Chats? Self-interviews with questions you send me?
What Goes in a Newsletter? (And I’m giving away a book)
As you can see, I’ve run out of Writer’s Window interviews to post. And I won’t have time until after this rapidly upcoming book deadline to do more of those (who would you like to see interviewed here?).
I am wanting to get my first monthly newsletter out on October 1. I have a couple of ideas of things I’d like to include in it, but other than book/manuscript production info, info about covers/release dates, etc., I’m not sure exactly what y’all might like to see in a monthly newsletter that would be different from what I do here.
So I need your suggestions of the types of articles/blurbs/info you’d like to see in my monthly newsletter. And when you leave a comment with a suggestion, your name will be entered into a drawing for a signed copy of either Love Remains or Ransome’s Crossing (or one of the others if you already have signed copies of both of those). Get two entries in the drawing by leaving one comment with suggestions for the newsletter and another comment with a wishlist of authors you’d like to see interviewed for Writer’s Window—or the second comment can be one or two quirky/zany questions you’d like to see used in the Writer’s Window interviews (no guarantee they’ll be used, though). Deadline to enter is midnight CDT tonight (9/27/10).
(And if you haven’t already signed up to receive the newsletter, you can subscribe here.)
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