Danger: Women Writing

Okay, so I normally chat about research. But, well, I recently came back from the RWA Conference, and my mind is a bit mushy still. So instead of talking books, I’m going to talk movies.

Or rather, the movies I want to see.

My son and I went to catch a show on Tuesday, and while we were there, I saw a poster for Scream 4. Yep, FOUR. Some folks may think four is too many, but when it comes to scary shows, I never have a “too many” point. That’s why I lined up early to catch Jason X, and why I was particularly giddy when the awesome Freddy vs. Jason (and, yes, that would be Freddy Kreuger–two horror movies faves fought it out) opened in theaters. I love horror films. I love it when they continue into a very long and involved series (or, well, semi-involved).

Horror movies are my guilty pleasure. On Saturday nights, I usually sit on the couch, glued to the TV as I watch Sy Fy Saturday night. What can I say? I like giant sharks that terrorize the coastline.

Do you have a guilty pleasure? It can be a type of movie, book, or even food. I’m all about sharing the guilt today!

Cynthia Eden
www.cynthiaeden.com
I’LL BE SLAYING YOU–Available now from Kensington Brava
DEADLY FEAR–Available now from Grand Central Publishing (Forever)

I love reading books in a series. There’s something magical about returning to a setting and characters that you’ve come to know and love. My TBR pile is growing by the day (literally), but there was no way I was going to pass up reading books four and five, Married by Morning and Love in the Afternoon in the Hathaway series by Lisa Kleypas.

I had been looking forward to Cat and Leo’s book from the moment of their first argument. I knew they would have a fiery story, and Lisa did not disappoint. To add to their intense attraction, Cat has a past she’s been running from. And a man that will do whatever it takes to have her as his own.


Leo through all his sarcastic comments and quick wit was a perfect hero for Cat. He was strong, clever, and refused to let her fall through his hands. Despite Leo’s attention on discovering Cat’s secrets, he must find a wife and produce an heir within a year or lose Hathaway House.


With so many twists and turns and villains attacking you begin to wonder if Cat and Leo can find the happiness they deserve. Yet, in the end, it is their love that gets them through it all.

I was very curious as to how the youngest Hathaway, Beatrix, would find her hero. Beatrix lived life differently. Nature and animals were her loves. No one but her familiy understood her which made it difficult for her in society. Her family had all but regulated her to a spinster, made worse by the fact that men found her attractive and easy to talk to, but never moved things further along.


It isn’t until Beatrix’s friend, Pru, gets a letter from a beau while he’s fighting abroad that Beatrix decides to answer Christopher when Pru refuses. After all, Christopher is putting his life on the line, and its clear by his letters he won’t return home the same man he had left. It doesn’t take long for the correspodence between Beatrix and Christopher to become something more, something deep.


When Beatrix learns that Christopher will soon return home, she ends their letters, but the damage is already done. She’s already fallen in love with him.


Christopher returns home determined to claim Pru as his wife. Their exchange of letters confirms that she is the one for him. Or is she? After spending time with Pru he soon realizes she wasn’t the one who wrote the letters. He sets out to find who deceived him and why.


The agony of seeing Christopher with Pru is too much for Beatrix. Her heart shatters again and again. The deception she was part of only makes things more difficult to bear. Yet, she cannot turn away when she realizes Christopher might be a war hero, but he is suffering from his time in the war. Nightmares and seemingly unending fury ride Christopher and keep him locked in his home. The only one who can help him is Beatrix. But does she dare? Her secret could be revealed, and then the man she loved would turn away from her forever.


Christopher soon discovers it is Beatrix who wrote the letters, but their time together has proved one thing – he needs her. In his life and in his bed. But does he dare take the chance of bringing such an innocent into his life of hell?


When love and a Hathaway are involved, nothing will stand in the way.

---

If you haven’t read this series, I cannot recommend it enough. Lisa Kleypas brings passion and intrigue and love into each story as her characters leap off the page. She emmerses you in her worlds, and you won’t ever want to leave!

First let me say I typed this really late, with a fuzzy brain, so no telling how many  typing errors there are! Please forgive any errors:)

Okay so WINE and BOOKS — sounds pretty good to me!Not that I am a big drinker, but I think that is what I like about wine. I can have a glass and savor nice and slow. Like a good book.  So how does wine relate to audio books? Compliments of my DH this week — very well! He just listened to an audio book with a premise linked to wine tasting.

So here is a quick review of  the book — SIDEWAYS:

From the publisher:

Sideways is the story of two friends, Miles and Jack, going away together for

the last time to steep themselves in everything that makes it good to be young and single: pinot, putting, and prowling bars. In the week before Jack plans to marry, the pair heads out from Los Angeles to the Santa Ynez wine country. For Jack, the tasting tour is Seven Days to D-Day, his final stretch of freedom. For Miles, who has divorced his wife, is facing an uncertain career, and has lost his passion for living, the trip is a week-long opportunity to evaluate his past, his future, and himself.

A raucous and surprising novel filled with wonderful details about wine, Sideways is also a thought-provoking and funny book about men, women, and human relationships.  The audio link is here.

http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_2?asin=B002UZL4XU&qid=1280819702&sr=1-2

So, as mentioned, DH recently listened to the audio of  SIDEWAYS. It is read by his favorite audio reader Scott Brick.  Scott Brick has a huge fan base. He is like THE audio book reader. Many buyers buy based on what books he reads.  Of course, DH thinks Scott Brick walks on water so he loved the book from that standpoint. But he also just plain loved the book period.

His comments :

–Miles made you want to drink wine. He described it in ways that made it a living thing that tied to every aspect of life.

–Miles best friend was a ladies man who was the opposite of Miles

Each was living a bit of a crisis in their own ways but together so their contrasting personalities really were perfect in the book.

Right after DH finished the book we just happened to be going to a wine festival and had a fabulous time. I’d post the picture but they weren’t overly exciting. We never remember to take good pictures! At least we actually remember the camera this time. But I did put the pictures we managed to snap up on my facebook page if you are curious about what a wine festival looks like. The vendors all setup side by side and you walk from booth to booth and sample. You can buy or just sample.  There is food to sample and food to buy. It’s a fun day and a great way to find out what wines you like so you don’t order them at  a restaurant, or buy them for home, and wish you’d made another choice. All wines, even the same kind of wine, are not the same.

TAKE a designated driver though if you do a festival or tasting.  It’s easy to drink too much. Or find a festival in a small town with a Bed and Breakfast or close hotel. There are many festivals in small cute  towns where you can get a Bed and breakfast to stay at and then walk or cab it to the event. Google WINE TASTING TEXAS or WINE TASTING COLORADO or Wine tasting and YOUR CITY/ STATE and you will find what your area has to offer.

Okay so the night of the wine festival we went home and DH had bought the movie SIDEWAYS because he thought it would end our night perfectly.  Well — it wasn’t a great movie. DH said THANK GOODNESS he’d read(listened to)  the book before he saw the movie or he’d never have bought the book.

So in this case — books rule over movies! If you saw the movie, it doesn’t compare to the book. Not in storyline or the way the book makes you see the characters.  In fact, many of the characters in the movie are NOTHING like the ones in the book.  Not in looks, personality, and so on.

So today’s recommendation — skip the movie, grab a book and a glass of wine, and enjoy!

Lisa

I think one of my all time favorite classic television shows is THE TWILIGHT ZONE. One of the best episodes was NIGHTMARE AT 20,000 FEET which was all about a gremlin that was trying to sabotage a plane. Of course the only passenger on the plane that could see what was going on was a very young William Shatner.

The origins of gremlins is an interesting one. According to Monsterpedia, gremlins are fictional mischievous creatures that are “mechanically oriented and extremely devious.” Because of their interest in mechanical things, gremlins came to be associated most commonly with aircraft. In fact, since 1942 Royal Air Force journals make mention of gremlins that were sabotaging airplanes.

Interest in gremlins appears to have spread after author Roald Dahl wrote his children’s book THE GREMLINS that was optioned by Disney, but never made into a motion picture. Eventually the characters in the story were optioned to Warner Bros. who used them in several World War II cartoons.

During World War II, many pilots complained of weird creatures sabotaging their planes and mechanics noted missing tools that were being hidden by the weird little creatures. Because of their association with planes, gremlins have even been incorporated in the logos of various air corps and patrols.

In recent times, people are more familiar with gremlins from the 1984 motion picture of the same name: GREMLINS. In that movie, gremlins were fuzzy adorable little creatures who turned into menacing and deadly demons if you failed to follow three little rules: never expose the gremlin to bright lights, never put it in water, and never feed it after midnight.

You can read more about gremlins here:

Monsterpedia: http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Gremlin
Wikimedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gremlin
GREMLINS, the movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gremlins_(film)