If I have to exercise again I swear I’ll loose my mind.

If I have to watch what I eat again I swear I’ll die.

The question arises:

Would I rather be unhealthy and fat or crazy and dead?

You ask yourself – why do they do this? The question plagues and frustrates you; and drives you to ask even more questions. Questions which lead you to believe they have no consideration for you. You even begin to question your relationship. You wonder, how you landed up with some one who is so uncaring and selfish- this person, who can not be bothered to fill up the ice cube tray is the same person who can’t find the clothes hamper when the floor is so much more convenient. The same person who is the last one out of bed but can’t be bothered to make it. You think, couldn’t they be the one to pick up the dry cleaning, or go to the market – just once. Your next thought is, when was the last time I received flowers for no reason at all? Better yet, when was the last time I felt like giving flowers for no reason at all? You remember previous times when you left each other little notes on the bathroom mirror declaring your love for one. Now your notes have become correspondence about errands that must be run and projects that must be completed. You start to wonder what has happened to your relationship – when all you really wanted was something cold to drink.

With the writers strike there are no writers for scripted television shows – which means anyone who can produce a television show without writers can have a television show. This means MORE Reality TV. As Maria in West Side Story said “please make it not be true”.

Imagine if our beloved authors went on strike and the publishing houses decided to print books anyway – who would write them?  The editors? The publishers?  And if they did write them, what would they be like? Can you even imagine such a thing?  Well that’s sort of what’s happening to television.  A whole new era is about to be heralded in the television landscape.

Between anyone who has a camera with a YouTube account and reality shows our viewing lives will be changed forever. And as Paddy Chayesfsky, in that brilliant 1976’s film Network, predicted – the landscape of entertainment has reverted to the days of the Roman Forum where having people being eaten by lions is the entertainment of the day.

Just turn on the TV – you’ll see what I mean
Some of the Reality TV shows that are on the air now, about to air, or in development:
Gladiators
Duel
Clash of the Choirs
Biggest Loser
1000 Ways to Die
Alien Encounters
Bash
The Deadliest Warrior
The Gauntlet
House of Horrors
Surviving Terror

NEED I SAY MORE?

Next time you read a book, a magazine, a newspaper, watch a movie or tune into a scripted television show – remember the words were written by some one – a writer.

Chapter 13 always ends with the world crashing down. I don’t just mean a few little untidy upsets, I mean leveling the lives of these brave beauties. Everything seems hopeless. All is lost. Life no longer has any meaning. All the things our valiant, strong, worthy, smart, caring, inquisitive, forceful, energetic, brilliant and gorgeous leading ladies have worked for is destroyed – no not destroyed – decimated. But! Their confusion, loneliness, dismay, anger, ill-will and daunting dis-ease lasts for but a page and a half of blank space. You see, after a page and a half of blank pace Chapter 14 begins. Ah, thank goodness for Chapter 14. Chapter 14 starts with the worlds “after a while…”, or “eventually…”, or “it came to pass…”. Or one of my favorites “a new day dawned…”.

After a while… becomes a specific amount of time. It becomes the time it takes your eyes to get from the end of Chapter 13 to the first sentence of Chapter 14 – perhaps 145 spaces, half a page, certainly no more than two. You know for certain that in only a turn of the page all trouble will pass. You know without a doubt a brighter day will dawn. You know as sure as you are standing there that the light will once again shine gently on our heroine’s face and lead her on the path of renewed hope, healing, and of course, success in any endeavor she chooses. “After a while…” encompasses the myriad of tasks, adventures, conflicts and struggles our heroine needed to experience in order to either walk again, find the missing evidence, come to her senses, discover a new planet or just find the partner she’s been looking for. Sometimes I wish I could be a 5’8” raven haired beauty with the soul of an angel, the courage of ten thousand and my beloved by my side. Perhaps then I would have only a page and half until I reached the safety of “after a while…”.

Looking back at 2007 what book affected you the most?

D: “What I give to you, what – what I share, I do with no one else. I like to think that what you give to me, you do with nobody else. Now that – that may sound silly to you, but here’s the thing I think is silly – the idea that jealousy or fidelity is reserved for romance. I always suspected that there was a connection between you and that man. That you got something form him you didn’t get form me.”

A: “I probably do. But gosh, what I get from you, Denny… people walk around today calling everyone their best friend. The term doesn’t have any real meaning anymore. Mere acquaintances are lavished with hugs and kisses upon a second or at most third meeting. Birthday cards get passed around offices so everybody can scribble a snippet of sentimentality for a colleague they’ve barely met. And everyone just loves everyone. As a result, when you tell somebody you love them today, is isn’t much heard. I love you Denny. You are my best friend.”

A: “I can’t imagine going through life without you as my best friend.”

Denny Crane and Allen Shore from Boston Legal

Boston Legal
Over the ledge
Season 3 episode 0
Written by David E Kelly
Airdate Nov 28,2006

This first meeting sets in motion the emotional plot of the story, the ahhh moment, the catch in the throat, the faster heartbeat. The more dramatic and romantic that meeting, the more believable it is for us that this represents a major turning point in the hero’s and heroine’s lives.

If done right, a virtual stage has already been set up before that crucial meeting—where the hero and the heroine are, what time it is, their names, and what they look like—so we can see them and watch the unfolding action. But it’s not just the impactful circumstances of the meeting that make it memorable.

It’s that all important micro-moment—within the first meeting—that sets up the promise of a truly great romance. That recognition of each other and the silent acknowledgment that something exciting is in the air between them, signifies for us the start of their process of falling irrevocably in love.

Very often the most romantically significant moments are when nothing is said at all and not much is done either. Full-on copulation is not necessary for the hero and heroine to recognize that “this is the one.” The dramatic suspenseful moment could a shared look across a crowded room, an accidental brush of his hand against hers, an unexpected act of kindness on one of their parts.

So, how did you and your significant other meet?
Do dish about your cute meet.

A challenge is a person expressing a point of view and is also an attempt to remove or restrict materials from the curriculum or library, based upon the objections of a person or group, thereby restricting the access of others. A banning is the removal of those materials. The top three reasons usually cited for challenging (and banning) material are that it’s considered to be “sexually explicit,” contain “offensive language,” and be “unsuited to age group.”

While books usually are challenged with the best of intentions—to protect children from difficult ideas and information—censorship, whether subtle and imperceptible, or blatant and overt, is nonetheless harmful. As Ray Bradbury says, “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” Implied here is that the sum of a culture is contained within the pages of a book.

Authors who frequented the ALA list of top 100 most frequently challenged books of the 1990s, included Judy Blume, Alvin Schwartz, and Toni Morrison. Surprises for me were the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling and the Earth Children series by Jean Auel.

For this year, the list of adult books includes I Know Why a Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, and The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. The young adult list contains Forever by Judy Blume, The Giver by Lois Lowry, and Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher. The corresponding children’s books are In a Dark, Dark Room by Alvin Schwartz, The Stupids Step Out by Harry Allard, Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People by Dav Pilkey, and It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris.

Do you think books should be banned? Are there cases where it’s clearly warranted?

Every place, be it a beach in Southern France, an overused campsite, a street corner in Manhattan, or the Alaskan wilderness, can be dialed up with a few carefully chosen details. Less is always more in this case, but its pulling certain specifics out of ordinary life and putting them together in special ways that bring a place vividly to life.

By emotionally shading those details, by reprising them as motifs, by painting scenes with a large color pallette, by using word repetition and alliteration and words that sound like their meaning (snap and ding), and by indexing into our memory banks with the essence of one scent or the taste of one food or the texture of one fabric, writers layer in the lusciousness in their stories. This allows us to imagine what we feel of what is being sensed.

As a reader, which of your senses does a story affect the most strongly? Which types of details weave a magic carpet to carry you away right into the heart of the story?

I first started my journey to Dallas by making detailed notes about what I wanted to do during the five days I was there…

Then came the packing

Despite judicious choice of items to take with me, I ended up with too much luggage

Dallas Skyline

Romance Writers of America 2007 Logo

Literacy Autographing

With authors Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Teresa Medeiros, Elizabeth Bevarly

With authors Nora Roberts, Julia Quinn, Christina Dodd

With Elodie Michels (left) and Romance Novel TV Production Manager Kim Castillo (right)

With Lacey Kaye

In case the photos so far haven’t been clear, the conference is [i]all[/i] about the clothes, the shoes, the bags, manis/pedis, etc. (j/k). Author Eloisa James’s shoes (left) and author Sophia Nash’s shoes (right)…

Author Candice Hern with her National Readers Choice Award and with author Barbara Freethy

Candice Hern with Sophia Nash, with author Sabrina Jeffries, and with authors Kathryn Smith and Jeaniene Frost

Haven Rich, by herself and with author Kalen Hughes

Gift from the Bon Bons to Kim Castillo. Haven Rich collected everyone’s contributions, coordinated everything, bought the main items, and drove the gift over to Dallas. Eloisa James presented it to Kim Castillo.

Author Amanda McCabe’s Regency gown for the Beau Monde Soiree

Amanda McCabe with author Regina Scot, author Andrea Pickens, and authors Debra Bess and Diane Gaston (right)

Diane Gaston by herself; with author Terri Brisbin; with author Eloisa James, Elodie Michels, Amanda Collins, and Santa

Lifetime TV Interviewer Michelle Buonfiglio with Elodie Michels and Amanda Collins; Santa, Kim Castillo, Julianne Perry Stone

Author La Nora Roberts

Author Anna Campbell

Authors Nalini Singh, Cathy Maxwell, Jo Beverley

Author Janet Mullany

Authors Kathryn Caskie, Sophia Nash, Karen Rose

Authors Lisa Kleypas and Christina Dodd (left) and authors Karen Hawkins and Suzanne Enoch (right)

Squawk Radio (Eloisa James, Christina Dodd, Kim Castillo, Lisa Kleypas, Teresa Medeiros, Elizabeth Bevarly)

Authors Victoria Alexander and Stephanie Laurens; author Sabrina Jeffries

Author JR Ward

Author Sherrilyn Kenyon (Kinley MacGregor)

Authors Sara MacKenzie, Kalen Hughes, Victoria Dahl

Authors Sandy Blair and Jules Bennett

Smart Bitches Reviewers Candy (left) and Sarah (right)

At the Red River Cowboy Bar, after the RITA awards and the dessert reception, with Sophia Nash and a mechanical bucking bull

Sophia Nash with Kim Castillo (left) and Kathryn Caskie (right)

Author Kayla Perrin with mechanical bull (left) and a bona fide cowboy (right)

I waited in line for hours to ship home all the free books I’d collected and the ones I’d bought at the author signing using the hotel’s ground shipping services

Then I returned home to this…

No, I’m not talking about exposing my body to the world.  I don’t think the world could
handle that!   What I am talking about is one of my pet peeves. Flashing, signaling, or
whatever you want to call it . . . please just use your automobile turn signal!!!   It
drives me batty when I am driving through the chaotic traffic of Atlanta and NO ONE is
using their turn signals.    I don’t mind letting you get in front of me if you let me
know you are coming over into my lane before you actually DO it.    I rant about this
particular pet peeve every single day.   In fact, I now have my kids pointing out cars
that do not use their signals.

So, if you are ever in Atlanta . . . please, please use your turn signals. Otherwise you
may just look in your rear view mirror and see me ranting.

Now tell me about one of your pet peeves.