I’m really excited and I had to share….check out my book teaser/trailer that was just completed. You can find it by either going to my website (it’ll load automatically) or it should be on YouTube later today!

Let me know what you think!

Cindy

Robyn’s post a couple weeks ago about favorite movie lines got me thinking about my favorite funny movie lines. Then I started thinking about why they’re funny, or at least funny to me.

Humor is a funny thing — some things that will make me crack up barely get a smile from my husband, and vice versa. (I totally don’t get the Farrelly brothers’ humor, but he does.) Then there’s the scene in Bruce Almighty of Steve Carrell trying to deliver the evening news while Jim Carrey is offstage doing his thing, making poor Steve speak total gibberish. We both laughed so hard we just about wet our pants watching it.

Content, Context, and Delivery:
Sometimes what’s funny is funny all by itself, regardless of anything else — like Steve trying to deliver the news. Sometimes it’s only funny in context. The line, “I’ll have what she’s having,” is certainly no cause to crack up and might even be something you’ve said while eating out with friends. But in context — delivered by director Rob Reiner’s mother in When Harry Met Sally in the diner scene after Meg Ryan’s, uh, climactic performance for Billy Crystal — it’s darn funny.

Part of the reason for the phenomenal success of family-friendly fare like Rocky & Bullwinkle and Toy Story is humor that works on multiple levels. Kids laugh when Mr. Potato Head (voiced by Don Rickles) says “What are you lookin’ at, ya hockey puck?” because he says it to a hockey puck, but adults laugh because they’re familiar with Rickles’ brand of insult humor.

I once heard that the difference between a comedian and a comic is that one says funny things, and the other says things funny. For the performances of Serious Actors like Robert Stack and Lloyd Bridges in Airplane, the humor is derived from their pokerfaced delivery of outrageous lines. Leslie Nielsen reinvented his entire career with such deadpan delivery of outrageous content. (Naked Gun, anyone?) Andy Griffith also realized the humor and power of playing things straight when he got his own TV show, after being discovered doing standup comedy. Andy was originally supposed to be the goofball, not Barney Fife.

Then you have a performer like Paul Lynde. Practically everything he said was funny, either by the words or his delivery but usually both. Much as I loved him as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched and his zingers as center square on the original Hollywood Squares, my favorite role of his was in the 1979 western, The Villain. This film is probably better known for being Arnold Schwarzenegger’s big-screen debut, playing a Dudley Do-Right type character called Handsome Stranger. (“My mama named me after my daddy.”) In a film loaded with funny and quirky characters, perhaps the funniest is Paul’s Indian chief, Nervous Elk. Kirk Douglas plays the title character, a determined but inept villain with a horse named Whiskey that’s smarter than he is. After observing the difficulties the villain gets himself into, Nervous Elk replies to a town elder’s request regarding the villain by saying, “He doesn’t need to be watched, he needs to be looked after.”

Here’s some of my favorite funny movie lines — let’s see how many you recognize. If they’re from the same movie they’ll be listed as A and B.

As a hint, some of the movies are older than I am, and one hasn’t been released yet but is highly anticipated.

1a. Put … the candle … back.

1b. Abby someone. Abby Normal, I think.

2a. Yes, I know, Ensign Hornswallow can be such a pig.

2b. We sank a truck!

3. Mother Goose is requesting a chaplain.
A chaplain? Good heavens, he’s killed her.
No, sir. They want to get married.
Married? Goody Two-Shoes and the Filthy Beast?

4. Well then, this would be more, wouldn’t it?

5a. You seem somewhat familiar. Have I threatened you before?

5b. There’ll be no living with her after this.

6. Juuuuust a bit outside.

7a. My eyesight’s as good as ever, just so you know.

7b. That outfit does not flatter you at all. It should be a dress
or nothing. I happen to have no dress in my cabin.

8. Inconceivable!
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you
think it means.

9. Surely you can’t be serious.
I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley.

10a. Did no one come to save me just because they missed me?

10b. You’re mad.
If I wasn’t, this would probably never work.

I’ll check in later to see how you do.

I need your help!! My second book for Avon will be out in April 2008 and it needs a good title. The problem is we’re having difficulty coming up with one.

I’d like to give you the blurb I wrote when I initially did the proposal for the book and then I’d really like your title suggestions. Anyone that posts a suggestion will be entered into a drawing for a copy of my March 2007 Silhouette Special Edition, Romancing the Nanny. Also, if your title is chosen to be on the book, I’ll mention your name in the acknowledgements!

Okay, here’s the blurb:

She lives life in the fast lane…

Thirty-two-year-old Marcee Robbens can’t remember the last time she was good. The irreverent party girl loves life in the fast lane and didn’t plan on ever slowing down. But that was before she’s sideswiped by a blast from the past.

When Marcee left home vowing never to return, her youngest brother was only a baby. Now a family emergency has unexpectedly dropped sixteen-year-old Camden into Marcee’s free-wheeling lap.

He’s just about to lose control…

Sam McKelvey moved to a small town to give his teenage daughter a better life. As a father and Police Chief, Sam has an image to uphold. But when a former lover moves in next door and makes it clear she wants to take up where they left off, his tightly held control starts to unravel.

Surprised by love…

Is their secret affair a recipe for disaster? Or for a happily-ever-after ending that will make even the most cynical believe in the power of love?

Suggestions???

These are pictures from the Sunset Beach Bar in St. Maarten. The bar is a great little tourist trap on the island where you can watch the planes land all day. I took these pictures using my camera’s continuous take feature.

It’s a one of a kind type of spot. Drink your margarita or your Carib and watch the 747′s buzz your ponytail. Or stand on the sand during takeoff and get an insta-shave.

Is there somewhere you’ve visited that had a very unique trait? Or have you ever done anything really crazy on a vacation?

I put together a little flash movie of the whole thing too. You can see it by clicking here.

Sound familiar? I ask this question 3-4 days a week. I’m lucky that Ultimate Sportsfan is a good cook and even likes to cook. But sometimes he asks me what he should make, too!

I find that we often have the same meal week after week. I don’t eat meat, so we have a lot of pasta and rice dishes. Most weeks we also have veggie burgers. This week I think we’re going to have pasta about 4 times. We’ll probably end up having it back-to-back.

I know I’m not the only person who thinks about this. We’re having dinner at a friend’s house Saturday night, and she called me today to ask what she should make. The dinner’s been planned for about 2 months, so she’s had plenty of time to think about it. It’s just so hard to decide! Some days nothing sounds good.

We went out to dinner last night, and that is my favorite way to deal with the what-for-dinner issue. But if we did that, we’d be in debt and weigh 400 pounds.

So how do you solve the what’s-for-dinner dilemma? Do you end up having the same thing week after week? How do you spice it up? And do you have any picky eaters (like me!) at home?

Last night, while eating my dinner, I watched “Pitch Black”, the 2000 science fiction movie starring Vin Diesel (in his breakout performance). I am in love with this movie. In fact, this is the second time I’ve watched it this week (partly because we finally bought it on DVD after I watched it, yet again, on Showtime) It’s th Director’s Cut, which is highly superior to the theatre version if you’ve never seen it.

Anyway, the thing I love about this movie is the two male leads. Cole Hauser plays the bitter, addicted, violent Merc, Johns. With his lean, muscular body, his bright baby blue eyes and his badge, Johns should be the ‘hero’. And yet, he is conflicted, ugly and capable of cruelty on a variety of levels.

And then there is Diesel’s character, Riddick. An escaped convict, he’s the bad guy the Merc Johns is bringing back to prison when the transport they’re traveling in crashes onto a hostile world where night only comes every 22 years. And when it comes, it brings with it death from a group of truly creepy animals. Of course, our motley little crew lands on the day of the eclipse and Riddick has a special physical attribute. He can see perfectly in the dark thanks to a ‘shine job’ he got in prison.

Diesel plays his character with the coiled strength of a powerful animal. He is raw and powerful, delivering his lines with a quiet calm that is both sexy and disconcerting. He tempts fate. He cares and does only for himself. And he will kill. There is no doubt about it.

Does he have character growth? Absolutely. I won’t give away the moment that changes him. But there is still that raw quality. Riddick will always be Riddick. Always.

The reason I love this movie is because of his character. It is so strong, so believeable, so absolutely achingly perfect that I get a chill every time I watch it. Riddick is the quintessential dark hero. I’m not talking the ‘dark hero’ who doesn’t act dark. Riddick IS dark. He revels in his black soul. And as sexy as I find him, I also have no illusions that he is totally redeemed when the credits roll at the end. And THAT is character to me. When I feel I know someone from top to bottom. When their every decision and action makes perfect sense (even the unexpected ones) to me because of what a writer and an actor have done.

So what kind of character gives you that shiver? Any movie or book characters that have taken you to that edge where you utterly believe they could stroll off the screen or page?

Yay! Today is the official release date for The Devil’s Temptation, the second book in the Daventry Sisters series, and it should now be occupying space on a bookstore shelf near you. I am so excited, I’m doing the Snoopy dance. Okay, maybe not literally, since I am sitting at my computer, but I am picturing it in my mind. And now that I am picturing it, maybe it’s a good thing that I’m not actually doing it. I am a terrible, terrible dancer.

But I digress. I thought I would celebrate the occasion by sharing a bit of top secret, behind the scenes info on the book. So, without further ado, here are just a few tid-bits to whet your appetite:

Here is the original, never-before-seen blurb I wrote for my editor when I first started work on my proposal for the book: The Devil’s Temptation is the story of Lady Maura Daventry, the second born of the Daventry sisters. Ever since the murder of her scandalous mother, the Marchioness of Albright, Maura has been forced to endure the condemnation and whispered speculation of the ton. But when she inadvertantly stumbles upon the marchioness’s old diary, she discovers to her shock that her mother was not the villainess she has been portrayed as. Not only that, but the wrong person may have been held responsible for her murder! Full of guilt and remorse at having believed the worst of her mother, Maura sets out to find answers, only to have her search complicated by the one man who could prove to be a threat to her vulnerable heart: Gabriel Sutcliffe, the Earl of Hawksley–the handsome and dangerously seductive son of the very man once accused of her mother’s death!

If that brief summary has left you intrigued, you can check out an excerpt from the book and some early review quotes here. And here are a few little-known secrets about the writing of the book:

1. In my original plans for the series, Maura was supposed to be paired up with the stepson of their mother’s good friend, the Dowager Duchess of Maitland. But halfway through the writing of Sins of Midnight, Gabriel made a sudden appearance and things changed. Those of you who have read the book will know the scene I am referring to. It takes place at a ball, where Gabriel comes to Maura’s rescue when she is being accosted by a rather arrogant young lordling who is being overly aggressive in his attentions. Gabriel told me in no uncertain terms that he was the one for Maura, not Maitland. So I didn’t argue. I went back and wrote in a son for the late Earl of Hawksley, and the rest is history.

2. Maura was the most difficult of the sisters for me to pin down as a writer. In the beginning of Sins of Midnight, she came across as very haughty and cold and far too concerned with appearances. But once I realized that she had a very good reason for behaving the way she did, I came to understand her better. Her character definitely changed and softened, and now she is my favorite of the three. I hope you will find her a heroine to root for.

3. Readers will get a sneak peak of Aimee Daventry’s hero within the first few chapters of the book.

4. I am not normally the sort of writer who visualizes a particular actor in my mind whenever I am creating one of my heroes. Usually they are an amalgam of several different people that slowly comes together as I write. But I must admit that I definitely saw Gabriel as an older, blonder, green-eyed James Franco of Tristan and Isolde and Spiderman fame. Just picture him with a head of golden-blond curls. He’s got the wicked angel look down pat.

5. And the killer is…Nah, just kidding. You’ll have to buy the book to find out the answer to that.

So there you have it. At least for now. I plan on sharing a bit more with you in the coming days. And in the meantime, if you pick up Devil’s Temptation this week, please do let me know what you think!

I’m thinking about the kinds of plots that appeal to me. And the ones that annoy me.

I enjoy and often write plots that involve a quest. They are almost always adventurous tales with bold rescues and daring escapes.

Sometimes I use mistaken identities, but I don’t like it when this is overused. And the one time I used an amnesia plot – the character who lost her memory recovered it in short order, a long time before she let anyone know it.

I’ve used the Beauty and the Beast theme a couple of times, most recently in The Bride Hunt. And my heroines are often underdogs – they’re usually a combination of “The Waif” (from the list of heroine archetypes) and “The Spunky Kid,” with a little “Nurturer” thrown in. So, even though circumstances seem to be against them, they are proactive and they make sure everyone is taken care of.

I like strong, almost-alpha heroes, but I’ve known a couple of true alpha males. Do not kid yourself: There is no way there can be a happily ever after with those guys. Throw in some beta (is this what they call gamma guys?) and you’ve got a winner.

The Forbidden Love theme appeared in at least one of my books. It was the amnesia story, in which the heroine washes ashore after a shipwreck. She is found by the hero, an Englishman whose family has been feuding/warring against his Scottish neighbor for generations. The heroine regains her memory very quickly, and knows she’s the sister of the (very dastardly) Scottish enemy. But she’s fallen in love with the hero, so she doesn’t want to tell him. (This was Norwyck’s Lady). And I like books that have the hero or heroine engaged (or otherwise committed) to someone else. As the story progresses, I like to see how they extricate themselves from the commitment.

Temptation is very compelling, especially when it’s the hero who believes he should not pursue the heroine. This theme worked well in a Medieval that I wrote a few years ago. The hero returns home from Crusade and intends to become a monk after he performs an important service for a friend. But the heroine is an indomitable young woman who was raised in a convent and wants to do ANYTHING but become a nun. The hero happens to rescue her, and he has no choice but to let her join his quest. Of course he can hardly resist her, although he tries valiantly. (The Virtuous Knight).

The Fish Out of Water can be a lot of fun, and humor often flows naturally from the situations. Many of my readers told me they laughed out loud at one scene in particular in my Scoundrel’s Daughter. The very prim Victorian heroine is up against a big, brute of an “Indiana Jones-type” adventurer hero, and neither of them really knows what to do with the other.

I used a Riddle in one of my earlier books, and there’s also a major puzzle for the hero to solve in my July book, A Warrior’s Taking. He’s got to figure it out before the villain does, and destroys his people. Riddles can make a story really interesting, but that’s because I like plot-driven books (in other words, books that are just as heavy on external confliect as internal).

The one plot device that makes me put the book down is when the hero (not so much the heroine) believes something awful about the heroine. It’s not the Big Misunderstanding – which is also tiresome – but something more substantial. And when it goes on for 2/3 of the book, I can’t take it!

I think the most important thing, no matter what the plot or who the characters are, is that the hero and heroine grow and develop over the course of the story. I want them to have learned a life lesson and undergo some kind of change that shows they’ve matured. What about you? What do you like and dislike in a book?

Check out this cover art contest….it was fun to see all the different covers and vote on them:

http://www.covercafe.com/contest

And the winner of yesterday’s contest is: Diane! Congrats, Diane. I will be e-mailing you shortly with details on how to receive your prize. And thanks to everyone else who commented. Lots of interesting and fun events out there to keep in mind for vacations and such.

And don’t forget to check out Cindy’s post below!