Thirteen Reasons I Loved
Trixie Belden
More Than I Loved
Nancy Drew

1. Jim Frayne
the hottest redhead around, and talk about angst in a hero!
If I were ever going to write a fanfic, it would be about Trixie and Jim finally hooking up.

2. Trixie was closer in age to me
she was 14, and Nancy was 18 in most of the books
It was easier relating to a girl my age, with my problems, as opposed to one who had access to a car and could come and go as she pleased

3. Trixie had two brothers to deal with
And neither of them were very nice sometimes. I remember Marty in particular, who was realistically obnoxious, as all brothers are. Trixie actually got in fights with her brothers.

4. Trixie had a mother–who actually said “no” sometimes
Nancy had a push-over father who let her do whatever she wanted. Whenever she wanted.

5. Nancy didn’t have to work hard for anything
She could pack up and go whenever she wanted–to Turkey, to Kenya, skiing, to France, to the Moonstone Castle…Trixie had to beg and plead to go anywhere, and was always sent with stipulations and rules. Oh, and her brothers.

6. Nancy and the cops were best friends
Because Nancy’s dad was Carson Drew, attorney at law, she had it easy with the cops. They not only believed her when she told them something, they sometimes asked her for help. Not so Trixie and gang. They were just young kids who sometimes got in the way. More realistic.

7. Trixie and Jim actually kissed
Nancy and Ned maybe held hands or he got a peck on the cheek, but there was no chemistry between them. At all. I gave up hoping after a few books.
As for Trixie and Jim…I still remember the scene in one of the books where she was standing in a field of burning maurijuana and so her clothes smelled like pot, and later Jim smelled it and was so angry and disappointed in her. That disappointment showed the depth of his feelings for her.
Mr. Nickerson was a plastic Ken doll next to Jim.

8. Trixie actually had real friends
Not paper cutouts propping her up. I mean, really, George and Bess: how bookendish can you get? George, the athletic tomboy with dark hair, and Bess the “pleasingly plump” fraidy-cat blond. Sheesh. Trixie’s friends, Honey and Diana, actually had real problems and the three of them actually had arguments and fights. Especially when Diana started to date Brian.

9. Although Nancy did go to exotic places….
That was one thing I really liked about the Nancy Drew books. She visited some great places and I learned a lot about them. Trixie went spelunking and to a ranch, but even with Jim there, it couldn’t compare to Turkey and Peru and Scotland and Hawaii…

10. Trixie wasn’t perfect
Er…far from it. She had messy hair, normal clothes, and a temper and stubbornness that would try anyone’s patience. Nancy…well, Nancy was perfect. I don’t think she ever raised her voice, had a hair out of place (even when she was tied up and left in the stairwell in The Clue of the Tapping Heels), or argued with anyone.

11. Nancy never had to do household work or chores
But Trixie sure did. I remember reading more than once when she got into an argument with “Moms” about getting her chores done before she could go detecting.
12. But Nancy had much much better cover art.

13. But did I mention Jim Frayne???
I think he’s the reason my first serious boyfriend was a redhead….

And ACK! to all you who haven’t read Trixie! I did love Nancy–I gobbled up every one of her books, and now, as an adult, am collecting them…but Trixie was so much better. The first three aren’t as good, because it’s Jim getting through his angsty stuff…but one of the ones I remember being particularly good was the Bob White Cave one, the Cobbett’s Island one, and the Mystery of the Emeralds.

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Katkat!

Please email me (author at colleengleason.com) with your addy and I’ll have Anne sign your copy of The Earl of Her Dreams!

Congratulations, and thanks for coming by.

Anne Mallory is a member of the (in)famous Wet Noodle Posse, and we’ve known each other for almost four years.

Her first book, Masquerading the Marquess (a romance set in Regency-era England and released in 2004), featured a female caricaturist who gets into hot water because of the not-so-nice comics she draws.

The cover of Anne’s first book could have been what gave me the idea to write a “Buffy in Jane Austen’s England” book, but fortunately, I already had started the book before I saw Anne’s cover…but I was holding my breath for months until my book sold, waiting to see if anyone else had seen the cover and had the same idea. (I don’t know if you can tell from this pic, but the girl on the front cover looks just like Sarah Michelle Gellar…)

Anyway, Anne’s here today and we’re giving away a signed copy of her latest release, The Earl of Her Dreams, which is a cozy English house-party murder mystery masquerading as a romance. (Or vice versa…).

Simply make a comment or ask Anne a question, and you’re entered to win!

Now…let’s get onto the interview….

Anne, it’s sort of a long way from computer engineer (programmer?) to historical romance novelist. Tell us the story of how you went from there to here.

It worked out very synchronously for four years - I did both - computer programming during the day and writing at night. I think it helped both jobs to use different areas of the brain - it gave a nice break for each.

But for all that, the two do have similar qualities - creativity, problem solving, drafting, revisions, constant back ups! I love problem solving - whether it is debugging code or trying to figure out a character’s motivation (or where to hide the body).

When you sit down to write a new book, what’s your process? Do you have one?

At the start of a book proposal I have a germ of an idea, and usually a scene I work toward (usually the end or the black moment). I write out a proposal, fleshing the idea into a synopsis. Then I start at the beginning of the book and just try to motor my way through.

I’ve tried different ways to write and plot, but I think the loose outline fits me best at the moment. I have a spreadsheet with chapter listings down one column and I just fill in the cells to the right with ideas for future scenes and where I want them to fall (the initial bits come from the synopsis and I just plop the appropriate paragraphs into the outline).

The whole thing is very low key. Fragments. Ideas. Lines of dialogue. Whatever pops into my head I write in the cell to the right of the appropriate chapter heading.

Then when I get to that chapter I can look over the notes and have an idea right away of what I want to do. And when things change in the story, I just remove the outdated bits from the cells and put them in a “Deleted” file. The document is fluid.

I also find writing down cues for what comes next to be pretty essential. If I stop at the end of a chapter, I may write on a piece of scrap paper by my computer, or preferably in my loose outline - “Heroine needs to find the note. Hero needs to go to Parliament to discover X. Heroine should be torn between confronting Mr. Y and believing hero. Revisit her fear of Z.” It just makes it easier to pick up the next day, or the next week, if something happens.

And for all this nice neat outline gibberish I’m spouting, I’m the queen of getting random ideas in random places. So I have paper and notebooks everywhere - by my bed, by my couch, in my car, in my purse… Makes for a bit of a paper nightmare.

Anything on my mind concerning the story goes down on paper, in a text document or in my outline. If it doesn’t get cued and tied to something tangible, it slips into the ether of my brain or sieves out completely.
What do you think is the most interesting thing about being a novelist? The most boring? The most annoying?

Most interesting: Creating worlds every day. Giving two people a happy ending. Continually celebrating love.

Most boring: Staring at a blinking cursor.

Most annoying: Still staring at a blinking cursor two hours later.

What’s this about you and sharks?

Heh. As a swimmer from the Jaws generation there is little scarier to me than open water. I decided to do the Sharkfest swim from Alcatraz across San Francisco Bay anyway. Very liberating! Didn’t completely cure me though.

When I’m in a large body of water with my head above the surface and my limbs dangling below…well, let’s just say that I turtle up and make sure that my digits are out of the water. You’ll have to bite my rump, shark!

Since you’re on my blog, we have to find out how you weigh in on certain things to see if we can let you stay….such as, name three or four fictional men with whom you’d throw it all away and run off with.

Jack from Romancing the Stone, Thomas Crowne (Pierce Brosnan) from The Thomas Crowne Affair, Wolverine (and when are they going to introduce Gambit?!) from X-Men, Dean from Supernatural, Christian Bale’s Batman, Westley from Princess Bride.

Um, you said 6 or 7, right?
(as many as you could handle, Anne…we’re not picky here!)

And…who’s your favorite Disney villain?

Oooh, so many good ones. I’m going to go with Captain Hook. Your Maleficent pretty much rocks though.

What television shows do you watch? Have you given up on?

Every week I watch Supernatural, Survivor, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I still watch SNL occasionally, but not like I used to.

And…who’s your geeky crush?

Gary Oldman. I’m not sure if that’s geeky though, or just out of the ordinary. LOL.

Anything else you’d like us to know?

Colleen wears socks on her head!
(How did you know that???)

Thanks for joining us, Anne!

Remember to make a comment to be entered to win a signed copy of Anne’s latest…The Earl of Her Dreams!

And you can find more info about Anne and her books at her website.

1. What special talent did Molly Ringwald have in The Breakfast Club?

2. What was the very first James Bond movie that was shown in the 80’s? What was the last?

3. Name the actress who played the pretty blond girl Elliot danced with in E.T.

4. How many Nightmare On Elm Street movies were made in the 80’s?

5. In The Empire Strikes Back, what was chewing on the power cables of the Millenium Falcon while Han Solo and company were hiding inside the asteroid cave?

6. What was the license number on the Ghostbusters’ car?

7. In Back To The Future, where did Doc Brown get the plutonium to power the time-travelling DeLorean?

8. In The Empire Strikes Back when the ghost of Obi Wan Kenobi said that Luke was their last hope against the Empire, who was Yoda refering to when he said: “No, there is another”?

9. What god were the Thugees worshipping in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?

10. In the movie Porky’s, why did they call Meat Tuperello ‘Meat’?

11. In the movie Aliens, what was Newt’s real name?

12. What does Ally Sheedy use to decorate her picture in The Breakfast Club?

13. In Dirty Dancing what was Baby’s real name?

14. What were Mouth and Chunk’s real names in The Goonies?

15. In The Breakfast Club, what did Brian try to kill himself with?

I know…these are simple. But I’m taking it easy this week.

1) Will get to Retro Tuesday shortly.

2) Guest blogger author Anne Mallory steps in the spotlight tomorrow, and is giving away a copy of her latest book (so get your comments and questions ready!)

When not writing books, Anne prefers to live life on the dangerous side and hangs out with real live sharks.

3) Wednesday night TV alert: my sister Kate Gleason will be seen on CBS’s Criminal Minds (9 pm EST) as the FBI agent who’s used as bait to track down a serial killer. (She’s in a scene with Mandy Patinkin too, and in the previews as well! Woohoo!)

4) Guest blogger author Sandy Blair will be in the spotlight on Friday, making this a light blogging week for me (good thing too, as I’m still recovering from last weekend’s girls’ weeke–er, writers’ retreat).

She’ll tell us all about men and kilts and how she actually fell off a cruise ship. Oh, and she’ll have a book to give away too, but I’m sure you’re more interested in how she fell off the ship.

But, then again, maybe you’re more interested in what men wear under their kilts. (Except Carl and Sparky, ’cause I figure they already know.)

5) And if you haven’t entered the Immortalize Your Friend in a Book Contest…what are you waiting for?