True Blood

Anyone watching True Blood? Interesting developments. I like that the plots are just a little different from the books to keep you guessing a little. Still fun to watch. Bill's new Vamp girl is funny. The actor playing Pam is spot-on with her, so is Lafayette.

Working in nonfiction right now, not my fave thing since fiction is more fun but nonfiction pays better, and sometimes you have to do what you have to do while you wait...and wait...and wait...to hear from that editor, agent etc.

So, what do you do to keep yourself busy while you wait for that important call, write more, exercise, work in the garden, all of the above?

Wolves and Such

First, the winner of an ebook is Cornelia. Send your email to cshenold AT cox DOT net and let me know if you would like "Museums are Murder" or "Fairy Dust." Congratulations.

I went to lunch with my wonderful friend Sara Saint John on Saturday. (Check out her books at http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Sara+Saint+John)

Anyway, we talked about writing, and family and friends and movies and all the horror stories we both love so much, ate good food and missed the friends that couldn't come. After we ate we went to her house to watch "Wolfman" on DVD.

I liked it. Emily Blount is an actress I always like, no better person for the villian than Hannibal Lector with hair. Wish the screen play had devoted a couple of pages to the relationship between Lawrence Talbot and Emily Blount, but enjoyed it. Could have used one or two touches of humor for relief, Universal used to be good at that, but not this time.

I also watched "Legion" this weekend. Loved watching Lucas Black. Haven't seen him since "Sling Blade" and "American Gothic." Accent is still there and that sweet smile of his. Angels fighting angels was interesting and the use of humans as cannon fodder. Saving the baby was a bit cliche but what can you do?

Reading the new Harry Dresden "Changes." I think it's the best one yet and I've been a big fan all along. Didn't get much writing done this weekend but hope to remedy that soon.

Also, "True Blood" season three started with a bang (or should I say fang?) last night and was Fangtastic, as was Pam in her snarky blonde way. Fun series. So, now you know how I wasted the weekend.

Let's Be Real

Gas, housing, gas, the stock market, loan entities, war, starvation! Plus security issues everywhere.

Why do you think I read and write fiction? I'd rather deal with the impossible like were wolves and vampires and murders that actually get solved. Good guys that win. Lovers that get back together. I want that perfect world with all the tied up ends. I don't want to know that good guys really aren't. I want happy endings, or at least hopeful ones.

Reality has always been the reason I read fiction. Not that my reality has ever been bad, I've been so blessed, no trauma, a happy childhood, no serious illnesses, injuries, disastrous love affairs. My marriage was good. Family not any more dysfunctional than most. Leaves me very little material for writing about so I had to resort to fantasy.

In my own created world, the worst I have to worry about are demons who get defeated, vampires and were wolves who are either good or dead, angsty(I know, not proper grammer) teen-age fairies, wizards who may or may not be evil. So, all in all, reality is highly over-rated because reality bites.

When I ponder the choices for writers, what genre is best, most publishable, should I be writing sweet romance (now there's a fantasy world), literary fiction, erotica, I know that what I write is what I'm happy writing, whatever the market pundits advise. Writing is one of my arts and I refuse to turn it into drudgery, even for money. That's why I stopped writing medical nonfiction for the moment. Burn-out. Had to write what I loved.

Mansfield Park

OK. I know purists out there love to rag on the Masterpiece Theatre versions of Jane Austen books. Sorry, Charlie, I love them. So I'm not an historical purist. I haven't memorised the novels. I just enjoy the wit, humor, underlying improbable romance, sub-text that she did so well. Plus they are beautiful. She loved having things take place at country homes as well as Bath. The countryside became a character in the story.

She truly wanted love to have a chance to survive in spite of money and position, even knowing that, in her society, it wasn't likely. She wanted women to be appreciated, even if they were smart, savvy and irreverent. Jane Austen was such a master at portraying what was said aloud in polite society in contrast to what was being thought, and built up the sexual tension accordingly, all without the devices of scary old castles, rape scenes or violence.

Don't get me wrong, if you read me very often you know I like action and adventure and I'm not afraid of violence that moves a story forward, but blood and gore for the sake of blood and gore turns me off. At the same time I loved Tarentino's send-up of vampire movies, "Dusk to Dawn" with George Clooney, Cheech Marin, and others. It was so funny, but gory. So like everyone, I guess I'm just full of the contradictions that make all writers different from each other, that makes us all different.