June 18, 2008

Top Ten Romance Movies

Written by Shirley Karr in Jaunty Post

Last night’s AFI special listed their Top Ten movies in ten categories. I only got to watch parts of it but I went to their web site and confirmed that one category they omitted was Top Movies for Romance Writers.

Yes, they did include the Top 10 Romantic Comedies: City Lights, Annie Hall, When Harry Met Sally (”I’ll have what she’s having.”), Adam’s Rib, Moonstruck (”Snap out of it!”), Harold & Maude, Sleepless In Seattle, Roman Holiday, It Happened One Night, and Philadelphia Story.

Romantic is not the same as romance, though. Roman Holiday is a romantic story to be sure, but a true romance, at least in my opinion, has a happily ever after for the two lead characters together. Audrey Hepburn’s character went on as the princess and Gregory Peck went back to being a reporter, separate. Sleepless in Seattle is romantic, too, but the lead characters get what, two minutes on screen together?

I heartily agree with their choice of It Happened One Night. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert have marvelous chemistry together. I first saw this years ago when I was heavily into reading traditional Regencies and it seemed like a Regency set in early 20th century. Loved it when the “wall of Jericho” came tumbling down at the end.

Philadelphia Story is a hoot, too – love the rapid, witty repartee between Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. They were also great together in Bringing Up Baby, but then I may be biased since I have a fondness for screwball comedies.

My Top Ten Movies for Romance Writers (and Readers):

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark – a primer for any writer, the opening sequence of this film is used in countless writing classes and workshops. Right out of the starting gate you get a feel for the hero, the villain, the quest, the conflict, and the hero’s strengths and weakness (”Snakes! I hate snakes!”) which will come into play later. And of course there’s the whole reunion romance with Marion. On the ship, when she’s kissing Indy’s owies better? Fun stuff. Yes, we love to beat up our heroes, sometimes even in the love scenes. (If you’ve seen Indy 4, please don’t spoil it for me — hubby and I plan to go but haven’t made it to the theater yet.)

2. Romancing the Stone – love the developing relationship between Michael Douglas’s rugged adventurer and Kathleen Turner’s wimpy city girl, and how both characters grow. Danny DeVito is hysterical in his supporting role. I sometimes explain to people that my writing style (at least what I’m aiming for) is Jane Austen meets Romancing the Stone. Since the movie is a quarter century old, maybe I should update the reference, but I can’t think of another one that fits as well.

3. Overboard – an amnesia story as well as a revenge story, set in my backyard, with the adorable real-life couple Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. Roddy McDowell is a great supporting character. Actually there are a bunch of fantastic supporting characters in this flick. The last line (”What could I possibly give you that you don’t already have?” “A little girl.”) still makes me reach for a tissue. Sniff.

4. Sabrina – take your pick of the version with Harrison Ford and Greg Kinnear or the original with Humphrey Bogart, but both remind me of a great Regency story, too. Can you see her as the coachman’s daughter? Love it when the crusty curmudgeon finally gives in to his romantic side.

5. The Princess Bride – over the top but so much fun, and so many memorable one-liners.

6. Cary Grant – okay, he’s an actor not a movie, but he sure knew how to do romance and comedy. Father Goose, Operation Petticoat, His Girl Friday, and the other two movies mentioned above are just the starting point for your Netflix queue.

7. Pretty Woman – one reviewer dismissed this as simply a hooker falling for her rich john, but he totally missed the point of the story arc and character growth. Near the end, Vivian is offered what she wanted at the beginning but she’s grown so much she passes up the heartless situation Edward offers her and goes off to make something of herself, and now has the strength to help her room mate do the same. Edward has grown enough to make major changes, too.

8. Benny & Joon – several types of love stories are going on here, between brother and sister (Benny and Joon), girl meets boy (Joon and Sam) and boy meets girl (Benny and Ruthie). One of the sweetest on-screen first kisses I’ve ever seen takes place between the two misfits falling in love, Joon and Sam. And there are some really interesting cooking tips, too.

9.

10.

The last two are blank. You get to fill them in. Which romance movies would you add to this list?

June 17, 2008

M. Night Shyamalan

Written by RobynDeHart in Jaunty Post

If I made movies, I would want to be so good at it that all of them were released as Robyn DeHart’s whatever. All of M. Night Shyamalan’s are like that. (Tyler Perry too, but I’m not talking about his movies today) It’s just kind of cool and frankly says this guy is very proud of his product. He also can afford to do only one movie every other year. Granted he doesn’t just direct, he also writes the stories and produces the movies as well. No one-trick pony, that M. Night.

It all started with The Sixth Sense. You all saw it. Remember that first time, being so utterly shocked. It’s still remarkable to me that everyone kept the secret for everyone else as if we all recognized the perfection in the story and wanted to maintain that for everyone’s enjoyment. Really quite nice of all of us, don’t you think? In any case I was so impressed with his storytelling and directing that I became an immediate fan.

So then came Unbreakable (okay I’m skipping Stuart Little cause it just doesn’t fit). And to say I was disappointed is an understatement. Maybe my expectations were too high. I can’t even say it was the comic book thing because I really enjoy the Marvel movies. I don’t know, something about it just didn’t work for me. I think one of the main reasons is because the previews led me to believe the movie was going to be about something entirely different. I like my idea better.

He redeemed himself with me with Signs. I might even like this one better than The Sixth Sense. The symmetry is perfect and the comic timing is unparalleled. Who would have ever thought to make a movie about faith and set it in an alien flick? And to the dissenters out there who didn’t like the alien shots at the end, suspend your belief people, the movie really works well.

So Shyamalan and me were happy once again. And then came The Village. *sigh* I talked to a lot of people that really liked this movie. And I wanted to. I was really excited about it. The Professor and I went on a date (this was before we were married) and I made him go see it. I hated it. I mean really loathed. It was awkward and predictable and ordinarily while I don’t love Sigourney Weaver, I don’t usually hate her. She was terrible in this movie. The story concept was fascinating, I just didn’t think the movie did it justice. All in all, a big flop for me.

If you’ve been keeping score, you’ve recognized that every other one of his movies works well for me. Unfortunately I haven’t seen Lady in the Water yet. We just missed it at the theatre and it hasn’t rolled to the top of our Netflix yet. But it’s on the list.

And so is The Happening which opened this past weekend. Originally the previews had me thinking this was supposed to be a bigger budget Left Behind kind of movie which had me scratching my head. From the current previews, it kind of looks like another alien endeavor. But hey, who knows, secrets abound when it comes to a Shyamalan movie. The Professor doesn’t do so well with spooky movies so this one will take some talking into, but I think I can convince him to see it.

How about y’all? Are you Shyamalan fans? Which are your favorites?

June 16, 2008

So Sad

Written by Shana in Jaunty Post

I’m really sad today. My little sister leaves (okay, not that little, early 30s) for Africa tomorrow. She’s going to work for the United Nations helping resettle refugees. I have to take her to the airport.

The whole idea is so strange to me. She quit her job, moved out of her apartment, put everything she couldn’t sell or give away in storage, and packed two suitcases. Could you do that?

I’d be freaking out, but she seems excited about going to live in a part of the world where indoor plumbing is a luxury. Plus, working with refugees has to be kind of depressing.

She’s only supposed to be gone until October, but it might be longer. Ideally, she’d like to do a 9 to 11-month stint.

My sister and I don’t have the same friends or many of the same interests, so we don’t see each other very often. But she lives about 10 minutes away, and it was nice to know she was close by. It was comforting to call her up when I needed something and vice-versa. There’s no one—not a mom, not a husband, not a best friend—like a sister. Now I feel like I’m being orphaned.

Tomorrow is going to be a really sad day.

June 14, 2008

June Bride? Noooooo

Written by Cindy Kirk in Jaunty Post

It’s my Anniversary!

No, I wasn’t a June Bride. But on June 17, 1999 at approximately 3:28 PM I sold my first book!

Before I go into more detail, let’s do a flashback. I started writing romance by taking a course in the Fall of 2005 appropriately titled “How to Write a Romance Novel.” In high school I wanted to be a writer, but I’d never known anyone who wrote a book and I gave up on my dream before it had a chance to get started. So I got married, graduated from college, had a baby and started on a career. Still, the love of story telling remained. I would make up different ends to movies and television shows, fall asleep not by counting sheep but by making up stories. I thought everyone did that! lol

So, I took the course and started writing my first book. I also joined a local Romance Writers of America chapter, went to a regional writing conference and then to the RWA National Conference (1996). I finished my first book in June of 2006 (six months after I started writing it) and promptly sent it to Harlequin. It was called Somebody’s Baby. It was rejected, but with a request to start it at a different point and resubmit. Stupid me…I did not redo and resubmit. Fast forward to 1999 and four books later.

I’d sent a query to Steeple Hill on my current WIP (work-in-progress) “Faith on a Harley.” The response came back quickly “Not interested.” I entered the book in the Faith Hope and Love Chapter’s Touched by Love contest. Although you just send your first three chapters, you had to have a complete book to enter (which I did). But while the judging was going on, I decided I didn’t like the book and cut it from 270 pages to novella length (100 pages) and GOT RID OF THE EXTRA PAGES. Of course it ended up winning the contest and the first prize is a critique of THE WHOLE BOOK by Patience Smith, who was then an assistant editor at Steeple Hill. If you’ve been following along carefully, you now know I NO LONGER HAVE THE COMPLETE BOOK. And to make matters worse–or better, depending on how you look at it–Silhouette Special Edition (SSE) requests a full of my 4th book!

Knowing Steeple Hill will only reject my book (remember, they’d already told me they weren’t interested in the story line) I concentrate on the SSE….which didn’t sell. Then I returned my attention to Faith on a Harley. Mostly because I was getting a push from the contest coordinator to get the book in or she’d give the prize to the second place finisher, I finally get it back up to 190 pages (80 short of Steeple Hill’s word count at the time) and send it in.

I was shocked to get a note back from Patience Smith several weeks later saying that she’d loved the book and wanted her senior editor to read it. I wasn’t stupid (even though you might think that from some of the things I’d done), I knew this was a good sign…because only the senior editors can buy for the line. But as I used to tell people, I’d been to the trough before but never been allowed to drink.

Then….on June 17, 1999…the phone rings. I’d been out of town for my job and had gotten back early. It was a nice day and instead of going into work I went home, took a book and a cold soda out on the deck to relax. The phone rings…and I hear a voice say “Cynthia Rutledge?” I think…telemarketer and almost hang up. But I don’t. Instead I say, “Yes, this is Cynthia.” Patience Smith tells me who she is and asks me how I’m doing. I say the very witty “fine” and when she says “I think you’re going to be even better when you hear what I have to say” I know this is “THE CALL” that every writer dreams of….

She bought the book and my revisions were to add 80 pages! “Faith on a Harley” became “Unforgettable Faith,” my first book for Steeple Hill!

Every year, I send Patience a note thanking her for giving me a chance and letting my dreams come true.

Thanks for letting me share my story and my anniversary with you!

I now write as Cindy Kirk, but I still have my Cynthia Rutledge web site (www.cynthiarutledge.com) so if you’d like to check out the cover of that first book and read an excerpt, it’s there for you! BTW, the book SSE turned down became my 3rd book for Steeple Hill “The Marrying Kind” It’s on the web site, too.

June 13, 2008

Margo blogs on Friday the 13th

Written by Margo Maguire in Jaunty Post

If you’re irrationally afraid of Friday the 13th, you’re a paraskevidekatriaphobic. So … how about it. Are there any paraskevidekatriaphobics here? And why are you bothered by Friday the 13th?

Consider: Hotels rarely have a room 13. Some buildings omit the 13th floor and go right on to the 14th. There are those who believe you should not sit 13 at the table for a meal. And how about this: there are 13 letters in each of the following names … Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert de Salvo. Quite a coincidence.

Christian tradition has a few beefs with the day Friday as well as the number 13 - the number of attendees of the Last Supper. And supposedly, the Knights Templar were routed and their holdings raided on Friday the 13th. The story goes that Eve handed Adam the apple on a Friday, the great flood began on a Friday, and the Babylonians lost their ability to communicate with each other on a Friday. I don’t know how people know this, but hey. Superstition isn’t really rational, is it?

So - bearing in mind that there is only one Friday 13th in 2008 - what superstitions will you observe today?

June 12, 2008

History Alive

Written by Shana in Jaunty Post

I just got back from a trip to see my grandparents in Michigan. They’re almost 90, and they live in a retirement home. It’s not a place I would mind living. They’ve got a computer lab, exercise classes, a pool, a store, a beauty salon—pretty nice place to hang your hat (or bonnet).

The thing I love about seeing my grandparents is all the stories that they tell. My grandmother tells story after story about what life was like when she was a girl. For a history lover like me, it can’t get any better.

My grandparents didn’t grow up during the Regency period, my favorite time to write about, but I think what we forget nowadays is how slowly things changed fifty, sixty, and seventy years ago. Life in the early twentieth century wasn’t so different from life in the early nineteenth century.

Take eating. My grandparents eat breakfast, dinner, and supper—just like they did in the Regency period. There wasn’t really anything called lunch in the early 1800s. People might have a small bite midday, but luncheon/nuncheon wasn’t a formal meal. Most people probably weren’t even hungry come noon as they didn’t eat breakfast until about 10.

Ever wonder why old people want to eat so early? It’s historical. In the Regency period, dinner was served between 3 and 5 p.m. in the country, between 6-7 if the family were keeping town hours (then nuncheon would have been more necessary). Dinner is the big meal of the day. It’s when you pull out all the stops. My grandparents eat a big dinner early and then have a light supper later. Supper, just like in Regency times, is relatively light.

Needless to say, Ultimate Sportsfan and I were a little thrown off by this schedule. We were also thrown off by how long dinner could last. My grandparents would spend an hour or more eating. When USF and I eat a midday meal, we pretty much scarf it down. I have 25 minutes for lunch. He has longer, but he likes to use that time to make phone calls or read the paper online. Who has time to linger over a meal?

But in the Regency, dinners could last for hours and hours and have dozens of courses. Obviously, there wasn’t the sense of hurry we have now.

And maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s educational to slow down once in a while, get the feel for what life was really like years ago. It’s an experience no book alone can give you.

So what about you? Have you learned anything from your grandparenst?

P.S. I have a contest on my website right now. Enter to win a copy of the Rita nominated BLACKTHRONE’S BRIDE.

June 11, 2008

Funny cat videos

Written by RobynDeHart in Jaunty Post

It’s a lazy summer day so I’m cheating. Enjoy!

June 10, 2008

Just because

Written by Shirley Karr in Jaunty Post

Have you ever done something just for the experience? You don’t intend to pursue it as a hobby or career, but you just want to experience it, at least once?

A few years ago a fellow member of my RWA chapter suggested we volunteer to answer phones during a pledge drive for Oregon Public Broadcasting. At the time my family wasn’t watching much OPB, especially during what my husband referred to as their “begathons” but I signed up for the shift anyway. Hubby couldn’t figure out why. I had no burning desire to be seen on TV – those pesky 10 lbs the camera adds, y’know – and I didn’t plan to pursue employment in the field.

We’re helping a good cause, I explained. And when I got home I was able to tell him about the totally awesome backstage tour we received while the real program was airing and the phones weren’t ringing. They showed us the editing bays and studios, explained how the cameras and TelePrompter work, all kinds of interesting things. Way cool. Yes, I write historical fiction but you never know what bits of knowledge are going to come in handy. And I just have always liked knowing behind-the-scenes stuff.

My dad lives in San Felipe, Mexico, a fishing village three hours south of the border with a large population of American retirees. When we first visited him five years ago, I went flying with a guy I met on the beach. Seriously.

Ralph landed his ultralight glider on the packed sand, and in exchange for fifty bucks he took me up and we flew south on the coast before heading back. He even shut off the engine so we could glide along with the gulls, no sound but the wind rushing past. I just wanted to know what it was like to fly that way. (Mind-blowing awesome experience, btw.) And Dad had told us all about Ralph and his struggle to get the proper licenses and insurance coverages to operate his flying business, so it wasn’t as harebrained an idea as it first sounds.

(No, Ralph’s legs aren’t in the shade — his are really that dark and mine are really that pale.) I would have flown again on our last visit but the winds were too strong and Ralph was grounded. My husband was disappointed that he didn’t get to go, but delighted that I didn’t since we later learned I was about a month pregnant at the time. He still shudders when he thinks how we went riding across sand dunes on quads. But Daniel turned out fine.

Through a convoluted chain of events, I ended up being the one behind the wheel when we crossed the border into Mexico. We got caught in rush hour traffic as darkness fell on a Friday just before Christmas, in a town with few road signs, which were in a language we understood only a few words, where the local custom frequently had three vehicles across two lanes. My husband needed a Valium but I kept thinking how I could use this experience. What if my heroine needs to drive a carriage in a foreign city? Now I know how she’d feel.

I’ve done other things just to see if I could, like volunteer to be foreperson when I was called for jury duty (it felt like being a referee, or herding cats). Even though I can’t cook, one summer as a teen I ran the french fryer at our church’s restaurant booth at the county fair instead of playing waitress, my usual role.

Sometimes when opportunities arise I hesitate at first because it calls for me to step outside my comfort zone. But I find the more I step outside it, the bigger my comfort zone gets.

Have you ever done something just for the experience?

In the interim…

Written by Anne Mallory in Jaunty Post

Shirley’s post will be up later today, but in the interim, I thought you might enjoy/scratch your head at this:

June 9, 2008

Tales of Culinary Madness

Written by EmilyMcKay in Jaunty Post

During my interview with Jaunty, I promised that—at some later date—I’d share with you a story or two of my cooking craziness. Here’s one of my more memorable gaffs.

But before I get to the story proper, you have to know a little bit about me. First off, I’m a tree hugger. Always have been. If it’s green and environmentally sound, I’m all over it.

So a couple of years ago, I read this article stating that the problem with the American diet was that we all eat like kings—lots of protein, lots of fats, lots of refined sugar and flour. Basically, all the stuff that’s bad for you and that until the twentieth century only the very wealthy could afford. A far more healthy diet would be the diet of peasants—whole grains and vegetables with a little bit of fat and meat. Furthermore, our kingly diet was bad for the environment, because cattle and diary take a heavy toll on the environment. This made a lot of sense to me.

So I decided, “That’s it! From now on, we’re eating more like peasants. We’ll be healthier and so will the planet.” Seemed like a win-win situation.

With this goal in mind, I set out for the beans and rice aisle at my local supermarket. Lo and behold, it turned out I wasn’t the only one with this great idea. I found out there was a company—we’ll call them Food for a Better World—that specialized in exactly the kind of meals I was looking for. Think of it as Hamburger Helper for the granola crowd. I bought a package of Bulgur Wheat Pilaf that was supposed to be the perfect meal in a bag. Just add a diced onion, fresh chopped garlic, a couple of bell peppers and some vegetable stock. Simmer for a couple of hours and you’ve got a tasty healthy meal.

After purchasing all the ingredients, I head home and start cooking. I chop and mince, sauté, simmer and stir. A solid three hours later I serve up a delicious bowl of pilaf for me and my husband, only to realize that I’ve prepared gruel.

Yes, gruel.

Turns out, Bulgur Wheat Pilaf—even with fresh sautéed veggies—is just not that exciting. Or edible, really.

That’s when it hit me. Peasants used to eat gruel, because they couldn’t afford anything else. However, we could afford to eat better. So we tossed the gruel and ordered a pizza.

So, what’s your worst dinner time flop?