Name in Lights

Ever dream of seeing your name in lights when you were a kid? You’d be a famous actor/actress in the movies and people would come for miles around to see your flicks. For most of us, that dream never happens. For a few lucky authors, they may still see their name on the big screen.

My publisher, The Wild Rose Press, was contacted by someone in Hollywood. Yes, it’s true. The movie, Red, that comes out this October with Bruce Willis and Mary-Louise Parker and a slew of other great actors and actresses, will feature some Wild Rose titles.

Apparently, Mary-Louise’s character is a huge romance novel reader. Bruce Willis is trying to seduce her so he reads the books so they have something to talk about. Of course, there’s more to the story, but that’s the important part, right? No one knows how many books will show up or whose. The Wild Rose Press sent out around 150 books.

The movie itself looks pretty good. I probably would have gone to see it regardless, but trying to pick out the Wild Rose titles? Fun stuff.




What do you think of the trailer? Looks like a good movie, right? If you go see it, remember to look for The Wild Rose Press.

Happy 4th of July

As you know, yesterday was July 4th, our nation’s birthday. Normally, we all celebrate (I think) with cook-outs and fireworks. Being here in Germany, we still do that as there are enough Americans in the community to celebrate. The neat thing is that the Germans will come out and celebrate with us.

Also, this year marks the 100th year of Grafenwoehr being a military post. There have been all kinds of activities throughout the week, such as a recreation of the first shot fired here  and culminated in a big celebration yesterday.

I work part time at the craft shop on post. As such, I am an employee of MWR (Morale, Welfare, Recreation) and had to work yesterday. It wasn’t too bad. My co-workers and I had to run a food tent selling hamburgers, cheeseburgers and steak. I got to take the money since I don’t have a food handler’s card.

The weather co-operated a bit as it wasn’t quite as hot and humid and it was overcast with a breeze so it was comfortable all day. There were those blow-up things with the balls for kids to play in, food (as I mentioned) and a couple bands, finishing off with a bang. Literally. Fireworks, you know.

One of the bands was a local German band. I didn’t catch their name so I can’t pass it along, but they were pretty good. The other band was pretty cool. They played covers, but the vocals were good and they got the crowd going. The USO brought them in from the States. Maybe you’ve heard of them. The Lt. Dan Band. Yes, Gary Sinise’s band.

Gary Sinise, currently of CSI: NY fame, plays bass in the band. He’s pretty good. Afterwards, some of the soldiers and their spouses got to have their picture taken with him. I wasn’t so lucky, but it was neat that he flew all the way here with his family to party with us.

So, that’s how I spent my 4th of July. How about you? How did you celebrate?

Liar Liar

One of my former coworkers mentioned a TV show that she liked and said was very interesting. It's in it's 2nd season now (I think), so you may have already heard of it. It's called Lie to Me.

It's about an agency of people, run by psychologist Dr. Lightman, and they are able to read the microexpressions that tell when people are lying. Essentially, they are human lie detectors.

I found this concept amazing and I love to check out new things so I googled the term microexpressions. Microexpressions are involuntary flashes of emotion that portray our true feelings, even if we try to convey a different emotion.

According to one website I found, this skill, reading microexpressions is not common. This person gave a link to a short test and I took it. Microexpression Test

I got 10 out of 10 right. Granted, I had to play a couple of them several times but still, I think it merits some further study. So, I'm going to look into some books and do more research. I would love to be able to read people as effectively as they do on the show, though I'm not sure that's possible since it is TV. I'm also hoping I don't have to stare at people the way they do. Rather disconcerting.

What about you? Watch the show? Heard of microexpressions? Can you tell how people really feel regardless of what they say? Did you take the test? I'd love to hear your score.

Law Abiding Citizen

Living here in Germany, I tend to find out about some things late. Knowing about the new releases at the box office is one of them. So it's not surprising (to me, anyway) that I missed the trailers and info about this movie. It was brought to my attention on the Romance Divas forum, where one of the divas raved about it. I've been a Gerard Butler fan since P.S. I Love You, so the fact he was in it (and the shot of his behind) was enough for me to add it to my Netflix queue and move it to the top. I'm so glad I did.

This movie rocks. And not just because of Butler, though his performance was incredible. He's very cute and funny in his comedic roles, but wow, his intense portrayal of a man seeking justice and the lengths that he would go through to get them was…intense.

The movie opens up with a home invasion and Clyde's (Butler) wife and daughter are killed. They catch the men, but the ADA (Jamie Foxx, whose is also wonderful in this movie) doesn't want to take the chance that he'll lose in court, so he makes a plea bargain. Clyde feels betrayed by the system. Fast forward 10 years and the killer is released from prison. He ends up dead, and Clyde is put in jail for it. Then other people involved in the case start dying.

I don't want to say too much more. I don't want to spoil the plot if you haven't seen it. Suffice it to say, you won't see the twist coming. I can usually figure the turns in a plot before they happen, but this one actually surprised me. In a good way. If you haven't seen it, I can't recommend it enough. Oh, and hubby was a bit skeptical when we sat down to watch it but about 10-15 minutes into the movie, he was hooked, too.

Law Abiding Citizen Trailer

Have you seen this movie? What did you think? If you haven't seen it, do you plan to?

Y'all have a great weekend!

Fun Mish Mash

After the tirade of yesterday, I thought something fun was in order for today.

Delilah Devlin (check out her link to the left) nominated me for a prolific blogger award. Now it's my turn to nominate seven more. I'll be posting those lucky seven on Monday.

My friend, Bria, is having a Romance Yard Sale. She and her yard sale partner, MG, have some great stuff. T-shirts, mouse pads, coffee mugs, tote bags, etc. All with catchy phrases that will really resonate with writers (or editors). Phrases like – "I'm not crazy, I'm just plotting" or "what came first? The writing or the drinking?" Very cute stuff. Here's a link to her blog post. At the bottom of the post is a link to the goodies. Check it out. Buy something. http://romanceyardsale.wordpress.com/

Sarah, from my Outreach RWA chapter posted this link to the loop. I thought it was fun so I'm putting it here for all of you too. It's inspired by an article in The New York Times Magazine, it uses a simplified algorithm to predict the gender of an author. I don't know about you, but whenever I hear the word 'algorithm', I always think of Charlie on Numb3rs. Check it out. See if it predicts your gender. It got mine by a lot. http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.php

One of the Romance Divas posted a link earlier this week about How to Suck at Facebook. I checked it out and thought it was hilarious. This guy is really funny and you can spend hours at his sight reading all his comics. Here's How Twilight Works. So funny. Check it out. http://theoatmeal.com/story/twilight

That's it for today. Let me know if you check out any of this links and what you think about them. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Dear John

Okay, first order of business – last week's goals. I posted that I would finish chapters four and five of Blood Diamond and post every day through Friday. I'm proud to report that I did finish both chapters and I did the blog posts. I sure didn't want to have to tell you all that I'd failed. Great motivation.

This week, I plan to finish chapters six and seven and blog today through Friday. Now on to our regularly scheduled post.

The movie theater on post showed Dear John this weekend, so Saturday night, I met up with a couple of girlfriends and went. I hadn't read the book. In fact, I don't recall reading anything by Nicholas Sparks, but I generally like the movies made from his books. I have to say, though, that I did not like Dear John.

I liked Channing Tatum's character, John Tyree. I mean, besides the bare chest shots. I thought they could have done a little more development with him, though. They alluded to his past and I didn't feel like they'd resolved that enough. I sympathized and connected with his character though. Not so much with Amanda Seyfried's Savannah Curtis. I wasn't connected enough to her and found her character shallow and annoying. The ending was less than satisfactory, though I won't ruin it if you haven't seen it yet. My friend, who had read the book, mentioned the ending in the book was different and judging from her description, I think I would have liked it even less.

Again, I didn't read the book and I may have enjoyed the movie more and felt more connected the characters if I had. I have no desire to, though. My leisure time is limited and reading a book for pleasure is usually one of the first things to go when the schedule gets busy, so knowing that I won't like how the book ends kills any thought of checking it out.

How about you? Did you read the book? See the movie? What's your opinion?