April 30, 2007

Well, not yours maybe, but mine!

The Music Man is whisking me away to a quick spa/resort get-away overnight (since it's a milestone birthday) so I'll be scarce until late tomorrow, plus I'm on a deadline, so I might not be back here until Wednesday.

But in the mean time, while I'm getting mudded and masssaged and pampered, I'll give away another advance copy of Rises the Night.

A Reader's Journal raves about it, so don't be shy! Step up, make a comment–how would you like to spend your birthday?–and I'll draw a winner when I get back. 

Don't party too much without me! 

April 27, 2007

Busy day for me…everything's all mucked up because some guys are coming to replace the big window in my office (it's huge) that happens to be right next to my desk.

All my furniture, computers, etc., need to be moved…and of course when that happens, much cleaning and reorganization ensues. So I won't be online much today, but I will have a new window.

In the mean time, humor me with a new Finish It Friday and thanks for yesterday's roll call! I hope to be able to announce a small book tour soon.

Finish the sentence: 

My first car….

April 26, 2007

Time for roll call. I need the name of the biggest city near you, please.

This is serious! I'm thinking about a short little book signing tour in mid-June for the release of Rises the Night, and I'm trying to figure out where to go. 

Since it would be fun to meet some of you in person, I'd like to know where you're located. So give me the biggest-ish city near you in the comments section.

And while you're at it, can you name this former heartthrob? (Think '80s, gals.)

(If you give up, the answer is on my Muse/News blog post today.) 

April 25, 2007

This is so cool. One of my readers, Andi, who lives in Belgium, sent me an email awhile ago telling me how much she enjoyed The Rest Falls Away. She's also an illustrator (she works on children's books) and she told me she was drawing some pictures of the characters in The Gardella Vampire Chronicles. I was so excited! It's really fun to see how other people picture the characters.

(In fact, I was talking with some friends of mine the other day, one of whom had a really squicky feeling about Sebastian. She told me she pictured him as a dark-haired, pale, greasy kind of guy. I was very surprised, considering how he's described when we first meet him: "….a handsome man who immediately struck her as being an intriguing mixture of gold and bronze…" But…that's what's so fun about this! Everyone has their own image of the characters.)

Anyway, last week Andi emailed her drawings to me and she said I could share them! So here they are…she's still working on Sebastian. (But I bet he won't be dark-haired and greasy looking.)

Victoria, of course

 Max…

And Philip, the Marquess of Rockley…whom Andi calls "a lovely character." I wholeheartedly agree.  

April 24, 2007

I mentioned awhile back that I'm so very into the ballroom dancing idea. I wish someone would open a dance club for ballroom dancing here in my area–I'd drag my Music Man, even though he doesn't quite lead the way I wish he would.

(Hmm. Now there's a telling statement about how much of a control freak I am.)

So, since I had my little ballroom dancing experience, I've been interested in seeing a few of the recent movies that have come out, and the first one I watched was the ever-hot Antonio Banderas in Take the Lead.

The premise of the movie is that Banderas, playing the real-life Pierre Dulaine, volunteers to teach the detention class of an inner city high school how to ballroom dance.

As you can imagine, this doesn't go over very well with the hard-asses who are relegated to detention for the rest of the year. Or are they? Hard-asses?

They all have their own stories, and we really only get a glimpse of two or three of them…but of those, the stories are sad and frightening and pretty much what one would expect from this setting.

The movie isn't sickly sweet, either. It takes its time, especially at the beginning over the credits, but it works. It doesn't wrap everything up neatly either, which I like. In other words, it's not "and they lived happily ever after…" but more of "and they had a different outlook on life and learned something."

During one scene, Banderas/Dulaine is called into a meeting with the principal and a teacher, and the parent association. They want him to stop wasting his time teaching their children the "box step" when they should be learning math and reading.

Dulaine's explanation is the crux of the movie, the whole theme, and I loved it. He says, (I'm paraphrasing here): "By teaching your daughters to allow the boys to lead, they learn to trust them, as well as trust themselves. It gives them confidence and assurance. Do you think a girl who has learned that is going to allow a boy to knock her up?

"And it teaches the young men how to treat a woman with respect. If he learns this, how do you think he will treat women all his life?"

Loved it.

I really enjoyed the movie and definitely recommend it for its thought-provoking theme, as well as some fabulous dancing. My ten year old daughter absolutely loved it too.

I'm also interested in seeing Step Up–anyone know anything about that?

I'm planning on seeing Strictly Ballroom again soon (I think my daughter would enjoy that too).