Cindy Dees's Blog, page 2

The Making of a TV Show from the Ground Up, Part 3

What are the sorts of things in books that make for a good movie or TV show? I know this GREAT book that I think would be an amazing movie…am I actually right about that?

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The Making of a TV Show from the Ground Up, Part 2

What’s the difference between an option and a shopping deal? How many books that get optioned actually become a movie or TV show? How much do they cost to make? And the one I always get asked…how much money do authors who sell their books for TV and film get paid, anyway?

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The Making of a TV Show from the Ground Up, Part 1

How on earth did I sell a TV show without knowing a thing about the TV/film industry? What’s a TV bible and how did you learn what one was? What's a shopping deal?

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KISS Romance Reading App Launches…and I’m on it

You can download the app here:

IOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kiss-read-write-romance/id1508942129

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stardust.kissreader&hl=en_US&gl=US

So, in this era of closing book stores and difficulty shopping through the pandemic, here’s a cool new way to get books delivered to you. It’s a mobile platform called KISS that delivers books to you by the chapter. You pick the genre and the book, pay a few coins (20 coins cost 99 cents, 110 coins cost $4.99, and there are various other coin packs), and then the app downloads a chapter for you to try. If you like the book, you keep downloading chapters. It’s a pay as you go app. But, if you’re not enjoying a book, there’s no need to pay for or download the rest of it. It’s a GREAT way to find new authors you love with low financial risk.(Sorry if you were hoping to to get free books by bestselling authors. We all have to make a living and with the book selling industry unfortunately collapsing, it’s getting harder and harder to do.)At any rate, one of my classic novels, THE MEDUSA PROJECT goes live on KISS tomorrow. In a few days, I’m going to host a giveaway for 50 free coins to four KISS users. To enter, you’ll need your User ID number that’s assigned to you when you download the app. Heads up: to complete downloading the app for the first time, you will have to buy at least 99 cents’ worth of coins.Oh, and I forgot to mention the KISS app has hundreds of books in ALL romance genres from sweet to suspenseful to smoking hot, paranormal, LGBT+, thrillers, and more.

Here are the links to download the app if you’d like to give it a try:

IOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kiss-read-write-romance/id1508942129

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stardust.kissreader&hl=en_US&gl=US

The challenge of diplomatic immunity

Was reading this morning about an American diplomat who caused a car accident and killed a young man in England. She apparently told police she wouldn’t leave the country, but subsequently did.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/07/diplomat-wife-crash-harry-dunn-immunity/

Boris Johnson has asked the United States President to waive her diplomatic immunity so she can be extradited back to England to face charges for vehicular murder. As an aside, given her diplomatic status, it doesn’t matter if she stayed in England or left. She can’t be prosecuted there, anyway.

I have to confess I’m conflicted about this one. It’s genuinely tragic that a young man died. Horrible. And yes, his family deserves justice. 

Diplomatic Passport

However, diplomatic immunity is often the only thing standing between Americans serving abroad and death. There’s a real danger in setting a precedent that it is waivable or revokable. 

Some people on dip passports need more protection than others because they’re working in the espionage field or are working on extremely sensitive/controversial/unpopular issues in the host country. it’s worth noting that nobody’s saying anything about what this American DID in England, and honestly, in my mind, that will determine how much diplomatic protection she deserves and needs. 

Let me explain a bit further. 

What if she’s convicted of murder and ends up in the British prison system, and she knows highly classified information about our enemies? Will she be assassinated in prison? Will she be secretly interrogated by enemy agents who infiltrate the prison? Or will she just get pissed off or depressed at being in jail and start spewing classified information to her fellow inmates, who relay it to outside sources, who relay it to our enemies?

Did she do a bad thing? Absolutely. She did a terrible thing. 

Should she face consequences for it? Absolutely. 

In practical reality, is it possible that serving justice to her would compromise the national security interests of the United States to see justice executed? Absolutely.

It’s also entirely possible she’s only some American diplomat’s wife, and was driving recklessly, wantonly irresponsibly, and is purely hiding behind her dip status. I’ve long thought that the spouses of diplomats shouldn’t get the same full immunity that their diplomat spouses get.

I’m just saying, in my humble opinion, that it’s neither a simple nor straightforward issue, depending on what kind of diplomat she was.

Today’s remodeling update: this post is provoked by Kylie...

Today’s remodeling update: this post is provoked by Kylie Brandt’s hilarious comment about her husband asking the budget of a remodel and her reply that she didn’t know because all the bills weren’t in, yet.

Let the record show that the kitchen designer and I were prepared to do our best to stick to the remodeling budget.

And then dear husband got involved. 

In his defense, his mother passed away recently, and she was a gourmet cook with arguably the most beautiful kitchen I’ve ever seen. I fully understand that remodeling our kitchen is, in large part, a tribute to her.

But, it turns out the budget was more of a suggestion than an actual financial document in hubby’s mind. My new mantra is, “I shall not ask what it costs. I shall not ask what it costs.”

When that fails to restore my breathing to actual function, I default to, “It will increase the value of the house. It will increase the value of the house.”

Last, but not least, I go to, “This is cheaper than hiring a hit man. This is cheaper than hiring a hit man.”

Doggo Cuteness in the Dees House

If you need to know one thing about me, it’s that I love dogs. Personally, I find that most dogs are better people than most humans. Right now, we only have one dog, a very large, energetic, Doberman Pinscher puppy named Waffles. He keeps the whole family on its toes pretty much all the time.

We’re remodeling our kitchen and family room, and Waffles has been quite worried by all the packing and chaos. But night before last, he saw me packing up my cross stitch supplies in a big cloth bag to move them. He picked up one of his fave tennis balls, carried it over to my bag, and dropped it in. Then he looked up hopefully and wagged his tail. Sweet baby.

We didn’t catch the moment on camera, but here he is being as adorable as possible with his fave tug toy in an attempt to get someone to play with him. We did, of course. Because who can resist a puppy when they pull out all the cuteness stops?

What they DON’T show you on HGTV, part 2

Sorry for the long silence but chaos prevails in my house as a result of all the stuff they DON’T show you about a major home remodel.

Am starting to be quite passive aggressive about those couples who blithely announce that they have 1.2 million to spend on a new house and 150K to spend remodeling to sell the old house, oh and she’s a part time yoga instructor and he wraps crayons for a living. We all hate you.

I talked last time about it taking months to do the financing, but obviously, yoga-girl and crayon-boy inherited millions and don’t actually work for a living, nor have they ever heard of financing. Hating you two a little more.
Another thing those TV families get to skip is finding and hiring a reputable contractor and a top-notch kitchen designer. We spent WEEKS on both. If you think about picking an OB/GYN…it’s about that stressful a choice for each.

As an aside, DO use a project manager/interior deisgner/kitchen designer. Ours knows all the moving parts of this major project and keeps lists of everything we choose for the contractors, and she keeps our more…eccentric…personal tastes from overtaking basic good design.

Most importantly, the TV shows don’t portray accurately that your designer had also better be a hella good marriage counselor. In fact, I might go so far as to say, this is the most important quality of your designer.

Who knew that two reasonable adults can actually wax homicidal over tile backsplashes? Like I said. Get yourself a marriage counselor who also happens to design kitchens…

In the Did you Know Department…bump stocks…

Ahh, the writer’s life. We research some of the weirdest stuff. A line frequently heard at our house is, “Honey, if the FBI knocks on the door, it’s for me. I was doing some book research again, this morning.”

Today, I went down the rabbit hole on bump stocks . In case you’re not familiar with them, they’re an attachment you can add to your semi-automatic rifle to make it, in effect, fully automatic.

pictures of bump stocks

In the simplest of terms, they cause the weapon to bounce rapidly against your shoulder while you hold the trigger down. The gun literally bounces against your trigger finger, which makes it fire over and over, as fast as the weapon can fire. You pull the trigger once, and it fires continuously as long as you hold the trigger down.

The rate of fire is approximately 9 rounds per second, and approximately 400 rounds a minute. Notably, the stock of an AR-15 will melt at about 600 rounds a minute.

In excess of a half-million bump stocks were sold before their sale was banned in the first part of 2019. Technically, according to the ban, anyone who owns one is supposed to destroy it. I might add, however, that there was a massive run on purchasing them before the ban went into effect. You do the math–would you run out to buy a bump stock just to destroy it in a few weeks or months?

No surprise, there’s a thriving trade in private sales of existing bump stocks among weapons enthusiasts. These sales are not monitored or reported. After all, it’s impossible to track cash deals between private individuals. Not to mention, a bump stock isn’t a complicated piece of equipment. Any reasonably mechanical soul could build their own bump stock if they had a minimal metal working set-up.

At the end of the day, banning sales or ownership of bump stocks was a case of Congress yelling about the fox getting into the hen house well after the fox killed a whole lot of chickens, stole most of the eggs, and was long gone, back in his den sleeping with a full belly.

So many bump stocks are now in the hands of individuals who aren’t likely to destroy them, and who can sell them with impunity, that trying to enforce a ban on them is less than useless. Banning them did exactly nothing to change the status quo. They’re still out there by the hundreds of thousands.

Whether you’re an avid 2nd Rights Amendment defender who believes in everyone’s right to own a bump stock, or an avid gun control advocate who believes all weapons should be confiscated, it’s worth noting that bump stocks are with us, now, and nothing can put them back where they came from.

They’re a critical component to the kit of the successful mass shooter. Any conversation about reducing gun violence in America probably needs to to take them into account.

Congratulations to Kennedy Ryan and M. Malone on their RITA wins!

Okay, kids. Time for some real talk. As most of you have probably noticed, I’ve moved away from talking about political topics for the most part. I made this decision because I’m convinced most people are so thoroughly entrenched in their own world view that no conversation will change any minds or sway any opinions. Political discussion will only cause argument.

I am, however, still willing to talk about those issues I consider to be solidly bi-partisan and of which I have a modicum of knowledge–things like Russian interference in our elections, Russian disinformation, espionage against America, etc.

Today, I’m going to add one more universal issue to that list. Racism. 

Regardless of your political stripe, if you believe that the color of human being’s skin makes them somehow different, other, or Heaven forbid, inferior to any other human being, you should probably go ahead and unfriend me right now.

Last week at the Romance Writers of America national convention, the board of the organization made a conscious effort to identify and call out institutional bias and racism within the organization. To that end, the national ceremony to present the Academy Awards of romance writing–the RITA–spent the evening celebrating trailblazers in the field of romance, those who broke race, culture, religion, gender, and sexuality boundaries for the entire industry.

I have one thing to say about the transcendently triumphant moments when the first two black women EVER won RITA’s — Kennedy Ryan and M. Malone.  This is the 39th year of the RITA’s with 8 to 12 or so of them being given out each year.

If those moments made you uncomfortable or you found yourself angry or squirming in your seat, there were fourteen exits from that room and there’s a big fat one from RWA by not renewing your membership. Use one of them.

There is no place in the world going forward for people who can’t see past the amount of melanin in a human being’s skin. We all bleed the exact same color, we all have the exact same brains and hearts, wishes, hopes and desires. We all love our kids and want a better future for them.

If you’re a racist, I’m going to go ahead and say you’re on the wrong side of history. And you’re surely on the wrong side of a professional organization devoted to advancing novels of hope, novels of love conquering all obstacles, and novels celebrating the universal nature of love. 

I am only a member in good standing of RWA with no particular role in the organization when I state my opinion flatly: RWA doesn’t need racists. If you are one, don’t let one of those doors hit you in the ass on the way out.