What I’m watching: KNOCKED UP

I freely admit that having this movie in our DVD player was NOT my choice. I’d read the premise of the film, I’d even seen other people blog about it–but faced with another evening of boring television (we don’t have cable) we watched KNOCKED UP since it had been hired by the kids.

Firstly, I think this movie could have been a whole lot better than it was. The actual premise had a ton of potential to show some great character growth and yes, while the lead male’s behaviour was incredibly juvenile and lacking responsibility he came to the party and was prepared to be ‘there’ for both the girl he knocked up and the baby that resulted from their one night of random sex.

I suppose, really, that his portrayal was pretty honest for the situation but the movie really lost it for me when the secondary characters (the heroine’s sister and husband) started acting out. What is it with couples, or at least TV and movie couples, where a female gets to say ‘I don’t like the way you’ve been behaving, I want you out of the house.’ Is there abuse? No. If there was I certainly wouldn’t have issue with wanting someone out of the house. Is there mental cruelty? No. Has he forgotten how to communicate with his wife about his own dreams? Yes. D’uh. Makes no sense for him to move out in my book. How the heck are you supposed to make things right when you’re not even together?

Call me old-fashioned, I don’t mind. I just find the whole cut and run thing (or even the cut and banish thing) very immature, especially when kids are involved and especially when there’s been no effort to seek to make things right in the first place–one strike and you’re out? Excuse me? To me, marriage and long term relationships are work all the way. Sometimes good work, sometimes hard work, but always work–much like life really. Forget to breathe and you’ve had it. Equate breathing with working on keeping your relationship healthy, and aren’t relationships the same way?

Anyway, suffice to say I wasn’t disappointed in this movie because I really wasn’t expecting to enjoy it. Yes, there were moments of humour that weren’t based in a particularly grubby toilet bowl and, yes, I’m probably not the target audience for this film being <mumble mumble> years old, married for half that time, etc.

So anyone seen a really good movie they’d like to direct me to? I don’t care if its comedy, romance, drama, thriller or action (just not too much gore, please.) Tell me about it, please?

What I’m reading: Linda Howard’s UP CLOSE AND DANGEROUS

First of all, let me just say that Linda Howard is always an auto buy for me and while I might not necessarily always ‘love the latest book to bits’ I always love the craftsmanship she displays with her choice of words, how she shows us the developing relationship between her hero and heroine and how she develops a sense of place and time.

I would strongly recommend that if you read the back cover blurb you go no further than the first two paragraphs, which read:

No sooner has Bailey Wingate buried her wealthy older husband than she learns that he has left the bulk of his estate to her–and not to his scheming grown-up children. A short time later, whilst flying from Seattle to Denver in a small plane, Bailey nearly dies herself when the engine sputters–and then fails…

Luckily, Cam Justice, a sexy Texan pilot, manages to safely crash-land the aircraft. Stranded in the wilderness–and struggling to control her feelings for the ruggedly handsome man by her side–Bailey begins to wonder whether the crash was really just an accident.

 

Okay? Read no further in the back cover blurb because if you do it will thoroughly put you on the wrong expectation track as a reader. I can only imagine that whoever wrote the backcover blurb did so in a rush and perhaps off a synopsis that changed during the actual writing process of the full manuscript. Either that, or the balance of the story was cut from the manuscript and it was decided to end it (and, in my opinion, in a bit of a rush) when the two crash survivors return to civilisation.

I’ve read a few reviews of this book where the readers were disappointed in the story, but I reckon a lot of that disappointment stemmed from an expectation, created by the last paragraph in the back cover blurb, that there were a great many twists and turns still to come in the story.

I have to say, that having read the full back cover blurb, I had those same expectations too. I really enjoyed reading the book, though. Loved the character depictions, all of them, and loved the survival story too–and I would have been completely happy with just that if that’s all I was expecting. However, I was almost at the end of the book when I started to wonder ‘hey…what about the rest?’
Right, so here’s the misleading part of the back cover blurb. The bit that changes the story altogether into something else:

Sure enough, upon her return to civilisation, the body count starts to mount, along with Bailey’s suspicions: who tampered with their plane? Who is behind the string of murders? Trusting her life–and heart–to Cam, Bailey must outwit a killer who will stop at nothing to finish the job.

I think you can see a reader’s dilemma here. This last spurious paragraph leads you to believe there is so much more to the story than the crash, the survival, the rescue, the whodunnit. It implies there are murders, suspense, danger and probably a heart-racing finish to safety at the end.

The thing is, for me at least, this book didn’t need  the murders, suspense, danger and heart-racing finish, although I would have liked the eventual discovery of whodunnit to have been a little more suspenseful (but that’s just the way I like it.) For me, UP CLOSE AND DANGEROUS, stands alone very well as a story between two people who had no reason to like each other much but who learn to depend upon one another and fall in love under very extreme circumstances. I still enjoyed the read, as I believe I’ll always enjoy anything written by Ms Howard, although I’m tempted to go with some form of block out tape through the bookstores to cover up the misleading paragraph in the back cover blurb.

Have you ever read a book before where the blurb was nothing like the story? How did it make you feel?

Realistic research (be careful how you go about it)

 

I hadn’t heard this story before and thought I’d share it with you. Apparently, Ian Rankin, Scottish crime writer, became a suspect in a serial killer investigation…if he can be relied upon to be telling the truth. Check out the (short) story, here:

http://stuff.co.nz/4283469a1860.html

Which brings me to the whole big brother thing and how freely available information is over the internet. I remember, some time ago, reading a story in a Romance Writers Report about a romance author whose home was virtually ransacked by a Government agency who suspected she was involved in some form of terrorism. Screeds of notes she had been compiling on her work/s in progress (romantic suspense) were confiscated, her home and her privacy were invaded and her computer taken, and while she was eventually cleared she didn’t receive back all of her possessions. Worst of all, she lost her sense of security and her sense of freedom to research at will for upcoming manuscripts. She, and her family and even her pets, ended up being terrorised by the investigation.

Now, of course, had she been bent on terrorism or criminal behaviour we’d all be feeling alot more secure that whatever nefarious schemes she’d been cooking had been thwarted, but in her case she ended up being the victim and firmly advised writers that if you’re researching something which could be classified as sensitive to be very, very careful how you go about it. She now advocates the use internet cafe computers or library computers and rather than taking volumes of information out at the library under your library card, photocopy the information you want while you’re there instead, etc. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, the books she’d been taking out of her local library were flagged by the Government and this is what brought her to their attention in the first place. Basically, she recommends you do all the sorts of things a ‘person of interest’, who really does have something to hide, might actually do!

 And reading Ian Rankin’s story, and remembering the romance author’s experience, reminded me of how easy it is to trace what we do on a daily basis, through all the things we do and take for granted in our every day lives–cell phone use, eftpos transactions, internet use, electronic time cards at work, images caught on CCTV or security footage, etc. And it makes me wonder just how closely we are being watched in what we believe are our private lives. Paranoia? Maybe. Is there some sense of security in this for us? Yes, I believe so, but at the same time it’s still kind of invasive too.

What do you think?

E-Books or Paper Books? That, is the question.

 

I’ve spent a bit of time today searching different e-book readers, and while I’ve found one that I find aesthetically pleasing, not to mention has all the functions someone like me who is generally a techno-phobe might like, I was was disappointed to learn that you can only download to it from that manufacturer’s connection site.

So, the big question here is (as I face looming piles of books I have read and don’t want to keep anymore, as well as looming piles of books I want to keep forever) which do you prefer? Using a digital book reader or holding a genuine paper book? And if you chose the former, can you pretty please tell me why you chose the reader you prefer?

And what about DRM? Will you still be able to read the book of your choice ten years down the track?

Here in New Zealand there appears to be a dearth of information on the subject, or actual product, so I’m open to all suggestions about the various types and styles available.

Can’t wait to hear from you all!

What I’m reading: Nora Roberts’ ANGELS FALL

Can I just say one word… WOW!

Oh, and, WOW!

I have long been a fan of Nora Roberts’ work, hmmm, maybe addicted is more like it, so when I recently purchased ANGELS FALL I knew I would be in for a treat. When I bought the book (as well as Linda Howard’s UP CLOSE AND DANGEROUS and Nora Roberts’ DIVINE EVIL–love that title!) I was still in the process of finishing my latest manuscript so I held these three beauties in check to be indulged in as a reward for finishing my book. I was not disappointed.

Not only is Nora Roberts’ ANGELS FALL the winner of the 2007 Quill Book Award (did I say, WOW!) it is a bloody great read (please excuse my outburst.) Ms Roberts has created a wounded soul lead character, Reece Gilmore, and without making the reader feel sappily sympathetic towards her, has enabled the character to become strong and believeable while being incredibly vulnerable at the same time. And then there’s Brody, swoon. He brings new meaning to the term ’strong silent type’ in my book.

As far as the mystery goes I was really drawn in. In the initial stages of the book I had my suspicions as to just who the culprit could be. By the final third I’d narrowed my suspect list down to two and it was only in the final pages that I figured it out before it was revealed to the reader. I love it when that happens :-). I hate to ’solve the crime’ too early and I hate the ending to come as such a surprise that I feel cheated I haven’t been fed vital clues to solve the mystery myself. Full marks from me on this book.

As far as the romance goes I loved every minute of the character development and the romantic development between Reece and Brody. The evolution of their trust in one another and their growing attraction is skillfully crafted.

Here’s the back cover blurb:

The sole survivor of a brutal crime, Reece Gilmore has been on the run, desperately fighting the nightmares and panic attacks that haunt her. She doesn’t intend to stay in the sleepy town of Angel’s Fist one second longer than she needs to, despite its friendly–if curious–inhabitants, and the irresistible attraction of local writer Brody. However, on a hike into the mountains she witnesses a couple having a vicious argument that culminates in murder. By the time Reece finds Brody and brings him to the scene, both killer and victim are gone.

The police disbelieve her story, and Reece must put her trust in Brody–the one person who does believe her–to find the murderer before it’s too late…

I always feel somewhat spellbound when I read a Nora Roberts book and I hate coming to the end because that magical sense of being bound by a silken web to the story finishes. Its hard to pace myself through the book because I just want to devour every word she’s written but I also want to make it last and last for as long as possible. Thank goodness Ms Roberts is such a prolific writer because I know that with every NR book I pick up that spellbinding promise is there for me and thank goodness also that this time I had the good sense to pick up two NR books so I still have one to look forward too.

Don’t you just love a LIVE SHOW!!!

 

We went to see WE WILL ROCK YOU on Saturday afternoon at Auckland’s venerable old lady, the Civic Theatre. Now, I have very fond memories of the Civic from my childhood–the star spangled ’sky’ ceiling, the blinking lions at the front (I’m still not convinced they’re not just dormant…) and there is nothing in today’s world, in my mind, that matches the absolute splendour and extravagance of a bygone era.

 

But I digress, as I tend to do.

I always felt that MiG was robbed when he wasn’t chosen to be the front man for INXS in 2005, but now, having seen him play the part of Gallileo Figaro in WE WILL ROCK YOU, I am so grateful that he didn’t make the band. He is absolutely awesome to watch and listen to. There’s a quality to his voice that remains with you long after the last notes of the show have died down.

The show itself, is spectacular. A feast for the visual and audial senses and for “Queen” lovers, of which I am proudly one.

In a nutshell, the musical is a futurist adventure set in the year 2350, a time when live music is banned on earth, but the kids are in rebellion, fighting against the all powerful Globalsoft Corporation which controls their lives and feeds them a diet of synthesized pop. The show features 24 of Queen’s awesome and legendary hits including Bohemian Rhapsody, We Are The Champions, Radio Ga Ga, Another One Bites The Dust and Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Honestly, until you’ve seen Annie Crummer in the role of Killer Queen you really haven’t lived.

I sat for a while this evening looking through the programme we purchased and relived again the wonder of attending this spectacular live show and I reminded myself that all too often we don’t indulge in true pleasures like this. Not since (during life before children) seeing a live production of the Rocky Horror Show  (featuring one of NZ’s late Prime Ministers, Sir Robert Muldoon, as the Narrator) have I enjoyed myself more.

It’s time we had alot more of this sort of thing. Fun. And yet, as much fun as it was, some of the ‘fun’ the writers poked at current musical trends put me in mind of a comparitive essay #1 progeny has been working on about films like Gattaca, S1M0NE and The Truman Show, and what we’re losing control of as individuals. Yeah, okay, I’ll admit to overthinking on this, but it just all seemed so pertinent, while being totally tongue in cheek at the same time.

So what about you? What’s the best live show you’ve ever seen? Was it a concert? A musical? A play? Tell me about it.

What I’m reading: Fiona Brand’s DOUBLE VISION

At the beginning of this month I finished my seventh contracted book for Silhouette Desire and as a reward for finishing my manuscript, let alone completely it nearly a month ahead of schedule, I had Fiona Brand’s DOUBLE VISION waiting to be read.

Harlequin and Mills & Boon are registered trademarks. Cover art for all titles Copyright © 2007 by Harlequin Mills & Boon Limited.

® & TM are trademarks of the publisher   

I’ve been a fan of Fiona Brand since her first book CULLEN’S BRIDE, released in 1999. It’s been fascinating, as a reader, to see her writing change and metamorphose into her current style which is, in my opinion, more gritty and edgy than her earlier romantic suspenses. Her characters remain as fully developed and ‘real’ as ever, but there’s a new thread in her writing that I enjoy, dare I say it, even more than in her earlier books.

Here’s a snippet of the back page blurb for DOUBLE VISION:

In the forgotten corners of Rina’s mind there is a very valuable secret…one that the Chavez family WILL KILL FOR.

Almost two decades ago, a car accident thrust Rina Morell’s life into darkness. Unable to deal with the traumatic loss of her mother, Rina’s young mind erected a wall that blocked her vision and her memories of the event. Years later Rina still suffers from psychosomatic blindness–unable to see the danger that lies next to her. Until a series of ‘accidents’ restores her physical sight, and a mysterious secondary vision.

Fiona Brand has left a few, very deliberate, threads unravelled by the end of this gripping story–threads which go back to near the end of World War II–and I am really looking forward to reading the next book in this trilogy (out 1 December in the US) to see exactly what happens next. To me, that’s one of the signs of a gifted author, where they keep making you want to come back for more and more and I’m looking out for KILLER FOCUS to include in my holiday reading! And then, oh joy! BLIND INSTINCT is next.

Have you read a great book lately? Why don’t you share it with me?

Blogging on Tote Bags ‘n’ Blogs

Today I’m blogging on Toe Bags ‘n’ Blogs so drop on by and tell me what you think about Artist’s Dates.

Cover Love!

Cover art copyright © by Harlequin Enterprises Limited ® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher

I’m currently totally in love. With my cover for my February 2008 release TYCOON’S VALENTINE VENDETTA.

 

The art department at Harlequin have totally captured the essence of my characters in this cover, right down to the hidden agenda in my hero, Jack Dolan’s, eyes. I couldn’t be happier.

 

What do you think?

 

 

Good guys? Or bad guys?

There’s an interesting discussion on Romancing the Blog on Responsibility in Romance.

Personally, my take is that when I read romance I want to suspend disbelief and I want to suspend reality (just, I imagine, as a science fiction reader or fantasy reader does also.) Yes, a brutish character does nothing for me but I get cross when people equate brutality with alpha heroes.

There are some fabulous comments on the blog by very well established and highly respected authers as well as everyone else.

Take a look and see what you think.