Lately, I’ve been on a paranormal kick. I LOVE the Twilight series of books. Ghost Whisperer is my favorite television show. I’m fascinated by psychics and what they profess to be able to do.

But I realized when writing this blog, that I don’t know a single person with psychic ability. No one who can see the future. No one who sees spirits. No one who can read minds. I don’t even know anyone who knows anyone who is psychic.

Is it just me? Are psychics rare? Do you know ANYONE with ANY psychic abilities?? If so, I’d like to hear about them.

I think I told all of you that my New Year’s resolution was to be more positive in 2009. I’m still working on that and can report that I’ve made a tiny, tiny bit of progress. I have other goals as well, and these are more long-term and not really resolutions. They’re just things I want to do in life and work.

In life, I’d like to get better at hearing and singing harmony. I sang soprano for years, and now that I’ve joined this band at church, I’m still singing soprano—or the higher parts at least. But our lead singer sings the melody, and she needs singers to sing harmony. Well, after years of singing melody, it has been a challenge for me to even hear harmony, much less sing it. I might do better if I had some sheet music, but the sheet music usually just has the melody. I have to download the song we’re singing from iTunes and then pick out the harmony. We sang Natalie Grant’s “I Will Not Be Moved” last week, and I must have listened to that song 25 times to hear the high harmony and practice it. This week we’re singing “Ocean Floor” by Audio Adrenaline, and I have the harmony for it (maybe I’m getting better!), but I’m still struggling with Chris Tomlin’s “Your Grace is Enough.”

In work, I’d like to get better at pacing in my first drafts. I think in an effort to get to know my characters better, I write far too much internal dialogue, which is boring and slows the action. I almost always have to revise it. In fact, on my current wip, my critique partner just told me that my chapter 4 is too slow. She asked where the action was.

Darn! Guess I’ll keep working…

What about you? Any goals you’re working on?

The other day, I got a nice surprise in the mail — a good friend made me a CD mix. Dragged down by deadlines and diet, I’d been having a so-so day when the little package arrived (Come on, it’s January 29. These resolutions aren’t fun anymore!  )

So, I popped the CD into the player and suddenly a ho-hum day was elevated to a new level. A couple of the songs made me laugh. Some made me nostalgic. Some of them made me feel pretty and powerful.  All, in one way or another, reminded me of the beauty of our friendship.

Isn’t music’s power amazing? It can transform your mood and transport you to another time.

Here are some songs that always take me away:

Bon Jovi’s LIVIN’ ON A PRAYER always makes me smile and remind me of my daughter. It has special meaning for us.

Don Henley’s BOYS OF SUMMER takes me way back to a relationship that wasn’t particularly good for me, but it certainly shaped me.

On the other hand, Madonna’s LA ISLA BONITA always leaves me a little breathless. It takes me back to a time that seems like another life ago, to careless days when it seemed I’d be young forever.

I remember my father listening to classic mellow  70s rock on the radio in our kitchen, but ultimately, the song that most reminds me of him is The Sound of Music’s EDELWEISS.  From Elton John to Captain von Trapp. Go figure.

Here’s a slightly embarrassing one – anytime I hear the Bay City Rollers’ SATURDAY NIGHT, I’m instantly in sixth grade again writing an on-going story with my best friend Callie. We used to pass a notebook back and forth. She’d write a chapter, then I would… <sigh> Good times!

When I hear Stevie Wonder’s SIR DUKE, I’m in junior high school marching band (yes, I was a band geek!). I can almost feel the chafe of that hot, stiff, crimson polyester uniform… and the rush of marching at halftime.

Oh, and I can’t forget to mention IT’S RAINING MEN by the Weather Girls – it will always and forever put a smile on my face and remind me of dancing with my girls at the annual Harlequin party.

Sometimes the lyrics fit the situation. Sometimes the music evokes a feeling. Either way, there’s nothing like the perfect song to transport you to a better place or a different time, like a mind vacation.

How about you? What are the songs that take you away or have special meaning for you?

When it came time to pick a winner for Tuesday’s contest, I realized the flaw in my logic. I can’t merely pick a winner based on which cool idea I want to put in a book, because I won’t know until the book is done if it actually makes it into the book. So I decided to draw a couple of winners and keep my list of cool expensive things to reference later. But for now, here are people who won free copies of Tempted into the Tycoon’s Trap:

Penny

Jane

Dede (just because you’re the one who suggested something I was already using!)

If you’re a winner, email me at EmilyBMcKay at gmail.com with your snail mail address and I’ll drop a book in the mail. Don’t forget to tell me if you want it signed!

They say the worst was The Love Guru with Mike Myers. I wouldn’t know – the trailers were enough to convince me to stay home for that one.

Fool’s Gold with Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey looked too stupid even to rent. Which makes me really mad – because there are so many great romantic comedies written by (drum roll) romance ruthors! Why doesn’t Hollywood come to the experts when they want to make a Romance?

M. Knight Shyamalan’s The Happening got panned, too. But I don’t know what this guy could do to top The Sixth Sense. Another disappointment to me was Burn After Reading. I thought it was pathetic, even though I think it got a couple of decent reviews.

I’ve seen a few articles that call The Dark Knight (Batman) the best movie of 2008. But I would have to disagree. Slumdog Millionaire tops my list this year. It was one of the best films I’ve seen in a very long time. Not to say that Heath Ledger wasn’t fabulous as the joker. He was spectacular. And since I’m not a Christian Bale fan, I’ll just say he was ok for Batman. But Slumdog Millionaire had all the right elements and was brilliantly written. You’ve got to see it if you haven’t already. 

Mama Mia was a great, upbeat film, but you have to like musicals, and be ready for a lot of ABBA.

What about W? Did anyone see it?

And I’m curious about The Pineapple Express – It lookd like a typically bad-taste teen flick, but I could be wrong. Did anyone see it? Care to give us a review?

What’s on your list? If you could narrow it down, what do you think was the one best, and one worst movie last year?

A couple of years ago, Harlequin decided to reshape the Desire line. They wanted the heroes who were richer and more powerful. They didn’t want just millionaires anymore–apparently there are too many of those in the real world–they wanted billionaires. The ridiculously rich.

So here’s my confession. I didn’t think I wanted to write heros like that. I don’t know any billionaires. I figure, my husband makes good money, he makes me happy. Why shouldn’t my heroines be able to find happiness in a similar income bracket?

And yet, here I am, a couple of years later, happily writing under the Desire banner about men who are insanely rich. So why did I have a change of heart? I realized by writing uber rich heros, I am doing the same thing my critique partner Robyn DeHart does with her historicals. I’m creating a fantasy world. And everybody needs a little fantasy in their life, right?

The truth is, once I set my mind to it, I was able to get into it. After all, I have expensive taste. It runs in the family. I can prove it. My daughter likes to “window shop” with catalogs. Now, most kids would flip through a Toys R Us catalog, right? Not my girl. She’s been looking through the holiday catalog for a local, high-end kitchen store. She keeps saying she wants these things for her playhouse.

To date, she’s picked out several hundred dollars worth of Le Creuset cookware, a thousand dollars worth of Viking cookware and a two thousand dollar espresso maker. Like I said, expensive taste. 

But at least she comes by it naturally, right? I have tons of fun shopping for my heros’ houses, cars, clothes, and … well, their coffee makers. 

So here’s the question … what accessories would you buy if you had all the money in the world? An expensive car? A house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright? A real Van Gogh?

If you suggest something cool, I’ll put it in my next book and as a thanks, I’ll send you a copy of my new release, Tempted into the Tycoon’s Trap. 

As a writer I was immediately intrigued by Cornelia Funke‘s premise for Inkheart and when I saw the previews for the movie adaptation of the book I couldn’t wait to see it.  It didn’t hurt that the yummy Brendan Fraser and Paul Bettany star in this movie!

The premise is this simply–a man “silver tongue” can bring characters to life from books when he reads them aloud.  The only bad thing is that when a character comes out of the book someone from our world has to go into the book.  And silvertongue has no control over who comes and goes.  Through the course of the story they encounter the author of the book that most of the characters have come from.  The book is full of characters/people who love books in all their different forms.  Silvertongue is a book-binder who repairs old books, there is a bookworm who adores who books and keeps them locked away in a library where they won’t ever get damaged, and then there are a couple of writers who like inventing new worlds.

And this is the part that I want to talk about.  The author of Inkheart (the fictional one inside the book) is enchanted by seeing his characters in the real-world.  He remarks that it is just as he imagined it.  He longs to go into the world he created.

The bookworm is forced out of her house and her safe little world into a real adventure, the first that isn’t in her imagination and she remarks that she prefers her characters on the page and not in the real world.

The bookbinder just wants his story to have a happy ending and will do whatever he has to in order to make that happen.

I have been all three of this characters or types through out my life.  I am an author who loves the worlds she creates and enjoys seeing those characters come to life when I re-read a book I’ve written.  I’m a bookworm who loves the adventures I’ve been on–especially going back in time say to the French Revolution and rescuing French royals along with the Scarlet Pimpernel.

And like the bookbinder I care for my books but at the end of the day just want a happy ending to my own story.

What I loved about this book was that I got every character’s motivation.  One of the major characters has a major ephiphany throughout the movie and realizes he can be more than who he was written to be.  And I think about that every day.

Who are you?  Are you the bookworm who prefers his/her adventure on the pages of a book?  Are you like the author who’d like to escape into the world of fiction?  Or are you like the bookbinder more interested in making your adventure a happy-ever-after?

Happy reading!

Kathy

Jennifer!

Jennifer, please email me at emilybmckay at gmail.com (but, you know, written like an email address.)

Send me your snail mail and I’ll drop the book in the mail for you.

Everyone else, make sure you scroll down for Cindy’s Saturday post.

Sometimes when I go out with my husband or with friends, we get a dessert and split it. It’s been a long time since I’ve eaten a dessert by myself. Not that I couldn’t eat it by myself. But I don’t feel as guilty if I’m splitting something decadent and delicious. Half the calories, none of the guilt. Right?

Then I read this list of desserts and their calorie count and realize that by even eating half, I could be consuming from 600 to 1100 calories. Yikes!!!

I’d like to know how you deal with desserts. Do you eat them? Avoid them entirely? Or split them even more than two ways?

Here’s the list of rich but hardly nutritious treats (that I found on AOL) and the author’s hilarious comments.

My question is– have you had any of these? And if so, are they worth their insanely high calorie count???

1. P.F. Chang’s Great Wall of Chocolate with Raspberry Sauce, Calories: 2,240, Total Fat: 89 g
Well, it does have 20g of protein and we can write off the raspberry sauce as being in the fruit group, so it’s sort of like salad, right?

2. Romano’s Macaroni Grill’s Dessert Ravioli, Calories: 1,630, Total Fat: 74 g
This Italian-inspired concoction consists of peanuts, caramel and chocolate in fried pastries served with vanilla ice cream and, uh, more caramel. Don’t worry, their New York Cheesecake only has 1,610 calories.

3. Mimi’s Café Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie, Calories: 1,879, Total Fat: 111 g
Why choose between pecan pie and a chocolate dessert when you can jam them both onto one plate? Plus, pecans = heart-healthy fats, right? Right? Come back here, we’re having chest pains.

4. Cosi Double Trouble Brownie Sundae, Calories: 1,594, Total Fat: 95 g
“One warm chocolate brownie & one blondie topped with two scoops of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream & a cherry.” Seven nights on the treadmill, alternating between self-loathing and considering eating another one when you get home.

5. Baskin-Robbins Heath Bar Shake, Calories: 2,310, Total Fat: 108 g
We like our coffee like we like our men: blended with Heath ice cream and caramel and tastefully garnished with whipped cream and pieces of candy bars.

6. Friendly’s Caramel Fudge Brownie Sundae, Calories: 1,530, Total fat: 70 g
An Oreo brownie with five scoops of ice cream, hot fudge, caramel and whipped cream. Who could have guessed those ingredients would add up to such high digits? We blame new math.

7. Don Pablo’s Chocolate Volcano Cake, Calories: 1,380, Total Fat: 77g
(Not to be confused with the 1997 film.) Take one chocolate cinnamon cake, drop it in a pool of molten chocolate butter sauce, scoop ice cream on top and shovel into maw. Burp.

8. On the Border Chocolate Turtle Empanadas, Calories: 1,280, Fat: 81 g
Really, how better to wash down a meal of fried flour, refried beans and guac than a pile of pastries filled with chocolate, caramel and pecans. With ice cream. Delicioso!

9. Chili’s Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie, Calories: 1,600, Total Fat: 78 g
Why have dessert when you can have novelty dessert?! It comes to your table fajita-style, sizzling in a cast iron skillet. And it’s soaking in a vat of cinnamon butter. (Kind of like your heart.)

10. Dairy Queen Georgia Mud Fudge Blizzard, Calories: 1,490, Total Fat: 83 g
When something has “dairy” and a reference to the south in its name, you can bet it’s going to err on the side of decadent.

11. Applebee’s Sizzling Apple Pie with Ice Cream, Calories: 1,086, Total Fat: 56 g
There’s nothing more American than warm apple pie — that has over a thousand calories. The ice cream melts over the sizzling sugary crust, creating a hot-and-cold classic for your piehole.

12. Jamba Juice Peanut Butter Moo’d Power Smoothie, Calories: 1,170, Fat: 30 g
… from a smoothie! Tacking the word “smoothie” at the end of a name instantly makes it better for you, so no biggie. That’s why we have entire-pepperoni-pizza smoothies for lunch every day.

13. Funnel Cake from a Creepy Guy at the Fair, Calories: 760, Total Fat: 44 g
It’s like a rite of passage when you go to a boardwalk or carnival. Chase it with some cotton candy and then get back to Skee-Ball with a renewed sense of energy.

I have to admit that I was terrible about seeing movies in 2008. Oh, I went to a few must sees like The Dark Knight, Quantum of Solace, Iron Man and Tropic Thunder (Robert Downey Jr. actually got nommed for it!), but most of the movies that are showing up on the Oscar noms…not so much. Whoops. Not sure if it was due to a crazy year for me or a crazy year for the movies. Probably the former.

Any must sees on the nomination list that you absolutely loved?

On an Oscar tangent, one of the things I’m excited for is the buzz around Kate Winslet. I love me some Kate Winslet acting and am thrilled she is in the major hunt for an award this year. Being nominated for one movie instead of two will likely help her chances too. She has some pretty stiff competition though, and with the Academy Awards sometimes you just never know whose name will out on Oscar night!

So who are you rooting for? What movies did you see that were nominated? Or what movies do you think should have been?

Here is a link to the Oscar nominees in case you missed ‘em!