Molly O'Keefe's Blog, page 12

Hopping! Book Covers! Summer is over!

it's finally silent at my house. The kids - they are at school. My to do list is three pages long. I'm not kidding. That was nearly two months of being utterly unproductive on many levels. The 10K I was going to train for - didn't happen. My fun historical side project I'd been hoping to have shined up - didn't happen. The promotion schedule I was going to organize - didn't happen. Basically, when I got ten minutes to do work, I flailed around probably making things worse. But, let's see what happens.

First in exciting news - Random House is re-releasing my Prequel to Crazy Thing Called Love. All I want For Christmas Is You will be released at the beginning of November. And the cover is lovely -
And we're going to be doing a few hops around here
If you follow the hop and post comments on the blogs you are entered to win a new Kindle Fire and there are also a HUGE whack of books up for grabs - the hop begins on the 11th - so stay tuned!

It's time to get to work

Hey,

So I'm sure everyone else has been working, but I've been slacking and this is the week that my work habits change.
So, I'm getting to work. Daily output, challenges, word count goals and deadlines. I need them all, because I'm at my core - lazy - and a procrastinator.
This summer has probably been my worst yet for getting anything accomplished. Now I have excuses, a lot going on personally and in my real job, but that settles now, so I'm putting together a weekly plan and sticking to it. Or Maureen will shame me. Possibly publicly.

The other thing I'm going to do is focus more on better eating and exercise. I have a lot going on in my life, a full time job, kids, writing, and it is a delicate balance maintaining it all, but I also find I sleep better when I'm physically active and I'm more alert, so fitting in a few hours a week of exercise is key for me.

This means less TV. Which is not a bad thing, given I wasted an hour last night on some abomination of a program feature a Spelling woman and her ridiculously overpriced condo. And maybe a lot less house hunters too. I'm going to go for the quality over quantity route.

I'm pretty sure I do this every September. I announce I'm getting to work, and then I hunker down for a few months. I'm doing this again, and looking forward to getting my writing house in order.

Anyone else in the same boat, or am I the only one that blew off work for the summer?

The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.

The good. I signed a new contract with Harlequin which means I’ll be an employed author for at least another year and a half. Also I’ll be doing two promotional novellas which I’ve agreed to some crazy deadlines. But still… me… promotion… like for real. One of my favorite people is RaeAnne Thayne and I remember her saying at a workshop once, doesn’t matter what’s going on in your life, when the train pulls into the station you get on board. Because you don’t know if that train is ever going to come back again. I don’t know if she was quoting someone else, but that line always stuck with me. I wasn’t sure the train was ever going to come my way, and this is more like The Little Engine that Could, but still I have to take this chance when I can regardless of the crazy that is my life right now. Right? Too late. I already agreed.
The bad. To make this happen I have to put aside a book I’m writing that I just flat out love. LOVE. I love everything about it. And getting up every weekend was a thrill because it meant that I could write it some more. But business calls, and real deadlines have to be met, and no one in the world knows if this book will sell or not, so I have to make the hard choice. Bye Clara… Bye Ronan… I hope I’ll see you in a few months. Don’t leave me… just hang out for a while as I get this other stuff done.
The ugly. The revisions for my book due out in March are not going well. And when I say not going well, I have thoughts like these… is it possible to re-write an 85K book in 2 days? That’s a no right? I mean for someone who can’t type as fast as Superman. And it wouldn’t really even matter if I could because I just don’t know what to say. It’s brutal. It’s ugly. I hate it. But by Sunday night I have to turn in something. So all I can do is slug my way through it. Emphasize the parts that I love. De-emphasize the parts that I hate and in the next two days find something, anything that will wrap up the story better because right now my editor’s notes are… you need to find a “better” way to do this.
So that’s my week in writing… anybody else have a little good bad and ugly going on right now?

Same As It Ever Was

I'm rereading Do Me, Do My Roots to format it for Kindle to prepare for the Thanksgivukkah Miracle when I'll be releasing Do Me, Do My Roots; Dancing Naked under the Moon (formerly Balancing in High Heels); and Un-Bridaled. I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

If anyone asks me what my favorite book that I've written is, I always say Do Me (The book, not as a command. Get your minds out of the gutter, people!). Writing that book was such an important step in my own personal healing process that it would always be dear to me even if it hadn't gotten me my first contract with a NY publishing house or been nominated for a Rita (two, actually) or been a National Readers Choice Award finalist. Over the years, so many people have told me how much they loved it. It's hard not to have a soft spot in my heart, given all that.

Rereading it has been unexpectedly difficult. I was unprepared to be slammed back into exactly how I felt at that period in my life. I had forgotten how hard it was. I'd forgotten about the time when I'd accepted that I would wake every morning with a hard little stone in my heart. I'd forgotten how real and how present my husband was still in my life then. In fact, before I started rereading, I would have told you that I really didn't feel all that much different now.

Boy, would I have been wrong. I have come a long long way. My husband was a terrific guy. We still talk about him and, to be honest, my oldest son looks so much like him that it's almost creepy. He's still present in our lives, but it's not as immediate as it was then. I'll always miss him. I'll always love him and grieve for him, but that little stone in my heart? It's like a pebble now.

I'm incredibly lucky. I know that. As sad as rereading Do Me is making me, it's also reminding me of how much I have to be grateful for.

The fine line between alpha and rapey

So Molly gave me a reading assignment. Kate Atkinson's Life after Life, which looks amazing, so what do I do, pick up a contemporary romance featuring a billionaire hero and start reading that instead.

And about thirty pages in, I'm frustrated, annoyed and a little disgusted. By all accounts the book has done well, it has tons of goodreads and amazon reviews and sold well.

My first impression was that the writing wasn't very good. My second impression is that the heroine is the same heroine that Stephanie blogged about last week, mousy, weak and at the same time, for no real perceivable reason, utterly alluring to the hero.

And then there's the hero. Of course he's a self made billionaire, before the age of thirty no less. (seriously, google billionaires. Romance doesn't have to be realistic, but we've taken this billionaire thing into science fiction) The hero wants no strings attached sex and of course he wants the heroine and being the good girl she is, she wants nothing to do with meaningless sex.

So what does he do. Back away gracefully and continue to woo her. No, Find someone else to satisfy what he continually insists are just basic physiological needs. No. Decides she's the one and insists over and over that he'll have her.

To me that's not romantic. To insist to a woman that against her will and wishes you intend to have sex with her is basically intent to rape. It's not romantic.

And the kicker to all of this is that he intends to pay her for her time spent having sex with him. So we get to add prostitution to the mix.

Awesome!

Now I get I'm being overly caustic on this, and according to the reviews some people actually enjoyed the book. To me this is the kind of book that opens up the romance genre to criticism.

If people want to read alpha heroes that badly, JR Ward does them beautifully, the hero is strong, and dominant, but the relationship with her heroine is respectful and consensual on both sides.

I want romance to actually be romantic, and so I'm putting down that book and doing what I should have done all along, read Life after Life.

Miley Cyrus and slut shaming...

I’ve read a lot of the articles about slut shaming and my feminist heart swells with outrage when I see girls being treated unfairly by the media and people at large. When it happens I have to acknowledge that yes, society’s long held prejudices are still there. That we live in a society where a sexual girl is a slut and a sexual boy is a player. Where a girl makes “the walk of shame” and a guy has earned a “notch in his bedpost” – (which really… so silly that.)
In my new favorite movie Pitch Perfect there is the wonderful moment where the leader of the Bellas asks one of the recruits to leave because she had sex with the enemy. As she’s walking out the door, head low, Fat Amy coughs into her hand… “Slut”. And clearly it’s the writer’s way of shining that light on all of us in a humorous way.  A wink to women everywhere that says we know we’re not really sluts and how ridiculous this shame we’re being forced to feel is.
Then comes along the VMA’s and Miley Cyrus’s performance. After all the kerfuffle of course I had to go watch and see for myself. Was this another case of “slut” shaming? Was she being persecuted for being sexual? My answer… I don’t think so. I think it was over the top. I’m not blaming her completely. I absolutely think someone should have stopped it in rehearsal. Or told her to tone it down. While provocative is the word of choice at these music award shows, there was something just “icky” about what she was doing on that stage.
I wasn’t watching a woman own her sexuality. I was watching a woman degrading herself by making us believe the only talent she had was wrapped up in her sexuality.
I know people will point to the lyrics of Robin Thicke’s song and cry double standard. But that’s my point. I’ve never seen a man have to go out on that stage and do what Miley did to try and entertain. At least not outside of the movie Magic Mike. Robin Thicke didn’t have to walk out in a beige thong and stroke himself then bend over. He got to go out there fully dressed and just sing.
I wasn’t outraged by Miley’s routine. I wasn’t disgusted by her lewd behavior. I’m not calling her a slut.
I’m sad for her.
I’m sad that a twenty year old girl with a lot of talent is made to feel that she has to go out there and do that to attract attention. I’m sad that she sees herself not as an artist, but as a body that needs to be on display. I’m sad that whoever produced and directed that show watched that routine and said it was okay for her to do that. I’m sad that Robin Thicke thought it was okay to allow her to shake her butt in his crotch for the purpose of entertainment.
I remember watching Pink perform in a mesh costume that gave the appearance of nudity. She was proud and beautiful and delivered one of the most stunning live performances I’ve ever seen. That’s owning your sexuality. That’s putting your talent first. That’s showcasing who you are as a woman.
No, I’m not saying “Shame on you, Miley.” Instead I want to hug her and tell her that’s she more than that. I hope she believes in her heart that she’s more than that.
How about we let the really talented girls go out there and just sing. How about that?

Book Reports

Inspired by Molly's summer book report, I decided to do a quasi one of my own. Here are some of the great books I read this summer (I wish I could say it was on my summer vacation. But there was no such thing. Wah!) Okay, I did go to the beach for 2 days. 
GONE GIRL, by Gillian Flynn
Okay, really late to the game with this one. This was the big book of last year that everyone was reading and talking about. (It's got over 13,000 reviews on Amazon!) Except that it's one that you can't talk about a whole lot without spoiling it. And I don't want to do that. But I did love it. Or at least I liked it a lot. 
Many Amazon and Goodreads reviews I've scanned say that they loved it right up to the ending, which infuriated them.... And while I get that perspective, I don't agree. I thought for a while how Hollywood would have ended it, or if I could think of a better ending, but I think it's one of those books that if you have a strong sense of justice and that people who do bad things should be punished by the law, then you might have an issue with the ending. 
But I could argue that the bad character(s) did get their just desserts in the end--a life sentence of sorts. (Oh, it is hard to talk about this book, without talking about it...)  Suffice to say that it's a story with two conflicting points of view and one of the POVs has a broken timeline and the characters play with your perceptions of what's going on, and it's really good fun/interesting to guess. 
Let's just say that one of the characters (in my non-medically trained opinion) is a sociopath, and the other one isn't the greatest person on the planet, either. 
And Molly... They might call this book a thriller, but it's not scary. You're safe.
I've read that Rosamund Pike has been cast as the wife for the movie version, and Ben Affleck as the husband and let's just say I find that casting very interesting. They are both sufficiently beautiful people (important) and Pike definitely has the acting chops to pull off her character, I think. And Affleck sufficient charm. It will be interesting to see whether Hollywood gives the story a, well, more Hollywood ending. I do feel like the ending will fizzle a bit on screen, if it's not changed in some way... But David Fincher is directing. Can't wait. (But don't wait for the movie. Read the book. The storytelling technique is so well executed.)
THE HAUNTING OF MADDY CLARE, by Simone St. James
Another one where I was late to the game. And full disclosure, Simone is a friend to me and to this blog. Which makes it even more embarrassing that I took so long to read this great story. Too many books, too little time; sometimes I set the wrong reading priorities...
The Haunting of Maddy Clare recently won two RITA awards and also won the Arthur Ellis crime writers award. A book that wins contests in both a crime writers organization (a Canadian one, to boot, where the bias is usually toward the literary) and two romance writers' awards is fascinating in itself.
The book is extremely well-written and it's basically a 1920's set ghost story. The heroine is a temp who gets hired by a ghost hunter, who's also a WWI vet, because the owner of the haunted building (a barn) thinks that the ghost will respond violently if a man sets foot in the barn. The combination of the supernatural elements, the who-done-it mystery (which I admit I figured out long before the characters did...) and the well-developed setting and characters made this a very satisfying read that I gobbled up over two days. Highly recommend.
Now, I need to read Simone's second book (which I've owned since it came out) and Molly talked about on Monday.
No word yet on the movie version casting. :) (Here's hoping, Simone!)
THE FIFTH WAVE, by Rick Yancey
So, this one I wasn't quite so late to the table. And I enjoyed this one too. Big YA sci-fi books like this are sometimes hard for me to fully enjoy because I get caught up in jealousy. ;) And when that happens it's usually jealousy of the marketing and promotion and attention a book got, not the book itself... But if the book is strong enough, I can stop reading like a jealous author and simply enjoy the book. That's what happened to me with books like Divergent, by Veronica Roth and Angelfall, by Susan Ee and with The 5th Wave. 
This book has several POVs and because I didn't read the book all at once, (both Gone Girl and Maddy Clare were interspersed...) I admit that at times I was confused when I picked it up about whose POV I was in and/or why I should care about a particular character. As a writer, I might want to study this book again to figure out why it annoyed me so much when he switched POVs, because normally that's not something that bothers me in a book... But that's a topic for another day.
In a nutshell, this is an exciting, well-told story about humans trying to survive an alien-induced apocalypse. While that premise is not completely unique, it is certainly well-timed (I can be envious about that part). 
Okay, I am going to let my "envious writer" show now... And this is just a comment in general. It's so hard to read a book that has elements that are already in my own current WIP, or in a book already in the can. The less-popular author will always be accused of copying, regardless of which book was written first, and regardless of whether the less-popular author has read or is even aware of the popular book... Sigh. Just a hazard of the trade. But warning to my critique partners... I'm going to need to brainstorm a few things to change the outline for my new WIP that now feel just a little to similar to things that happen in The 5th Wave. Dammit!
Has anyone else read any of these?

There's going to be a Thanksgivvukah Miracle!

This year the first night of Hanukkah falls on Thanksgiving. This has never happened before and will not happen again for 70,000 years. That's kind of a long time. They're calling it Thanksgivukkah.

When I first heard this, I got a little stressed. Thanksgiving and Hanukkah represent the two nights I make the biggest messes in the kitchen. Somehow between the gravy and the turkey and the stuffing and the potatoes and the pies and the green beans with those crispy onion bits, I manage to fling blobs of food everywhere. On Hanukkah, the brisket I usually do ahead so that's not a problem. The latkes on the other hand? Those have to be fresh. I sometimes I have as many as four pans with two to three different latke varieties going at once with grease spattering everywhere. Plus, how trafe will it be to wrap the turkey with bacon if we're also being commanded and sanctified to light the candles of Hanukkah? Truly, the mind boggles.

Then I decided to embrace it. I want to feel the wonder of the season. I want to be part of the magic. I've been making plans to re-release my first 3 chick lit books. My plan was to do one a month from now until December. I'm throwing that all out the window.

I'm going to release all three books at once for Thanksgivukkah and I will be giving Do Me, Do My Roots (my favorite) away for free on the Friday and Saturday after the blessed event to celebrate. I just made the decision this weekend and you all are the first to know (except maybe the friends I was drinking with on Saturday night, but I'm not sure they were listening to me).

To whet your appetite for the satisfaction of a latke-stuffed turkey or perhaps turbrisket, here's the new cover for Do Me from my buddy Teresa over at Be My Bard.




Adorable, is it not?

So I'd like to hear how you all feel Thanksgivukkah will affect you. How do you intend to celebrate? What's your plan?

Some excellent books I've read this summer....

I killed this summer. I just chased it down and snapped it up in my teeth and shook it to death. There have been vacations, trips to the library, swimming lessons, sunburns, sand caught in terrible places. There have been plane rides and car trips, quiet days at home. I've had conferences and days doing nothing. I've had a high school reunion and a college one. I've had too much to eat, too much to drink and not enough time to get anything done. And through it all I've read some great books. I've read some clunkers too, but I prefer not to talk about the clunkers. This is what I've read on my summer vacation:


THE MIGHT HAVE BEEN by Joe Schuster. Joe is my favorite college professor and I gave this book to Adam, but he was taking too long to read it so before visiting Joe in St. Louis I cracked it open. For genre/romance fans - the beginning may be tough for you. The hero has lost his dream and he's sort of a floating entity. Not nice. Not particularly cruel - just extremely negligent. It takes a while to want to root for him. However the second part of the book - when our hero is managing a minor league team - it's amazing. AMAZING!!! It's rich rich rich in details - the baseball stuff sings. It just lifts off the page. Big recommend.

BEAUTIFUL RUINS - this was Esquire's book of the year last year and I have to agree. A few different timelines, a few different narrators, a love affair across continents, years and language. It's funny and sharp and heartbreaking.

DEEPER by Robin York aka Ruthie Knox - Ruthie sent me an advance copy of her upcoming New Adult. I have not been in love with the New Adult niche. I love angst as much as the next romance reader but perhaps I'm too old, or the heroines are too young - but none of the NA I've read has sunk in on any level. They've been forgettable. All of that is TOTALLY different with DEEPER. The heroine in the doesn't just get over the trauma done to her by an ex-boyfriend leaking dirty pictures of her on the internet - she grows up into a fierce woman. Perhaps this is what I've been looking for in NA - a teenager growing up into a woman through the course of a book. There's also a seriously seriously delicious hero - named West. Honestly. This book is fantastic!!!! It's out later this year - so keep an eye out for it.! There's no pre-order yet - otherwise I'd link to it!

The Orphan Master's Son this book won the Pulitzer last year and I'm on a tear to try to read more award winning literary books. We have a Pulitzer prize for literature - I feel like I should at least give them a shot. This book is breathtaking. It takes place in North Korea - and because I know little to nothing about North Korea the setting read as part sci-fi to me - which gave it sort of a Cloud Atlas feel to me, because the places the story went were handled so deftly. The romance, the espionage, the sea shanty - all of it. Utterly fascinating world-building. This is not a happy book - but it's funny and sharp. And epically sad. Loved it.


An Inquiry Into Love and Death
I read this book outside in broad daylight out on the Toronto Island. I was sitting next to this pier with a giant bell on it and every once in a while the bell would ring without anyone touching it. That combined with this incredibly creepy, gothic historical novel with a great romantic element freaked the crap out of me. This is really an amazing book. Simone handles all aspects of these books - the ghosts, the romance, the history, the pov, the setting - all of it with very sure hands.

A Woman Entangled I found the latest of Cecilia's books to be the most delicate and realistic. The hero and heroine have ambition that is not the usual romance kind of motivation. They want just a little bit more then what they have. A better job, a good marriage. They don't want revenge, or to save England - they just want a little bit more and I think because their motivations were so human, some people did not love this book as much as her others. I've seen reviews that said the hero was not heroic and I think it's because many readers have a hard time when a good guy hero acts on his own desires, his own wants. We're used to Alpha males doing this - going after what they want and damn everyone else. But a nice guy? This leads me to the next great book Courtney Milan's The Heiress Effect
I've read criticisms of this book too in much the same vein -- the hero was not heroic. I loved loved this book. The heroine was amazing, the writing as always was beautiful and I loved this hero. Same thing - he was not going to give up everything to help the heroine. He's not an alpha-hero, he's a quiet guy who wants just a little more, and he won't give it up for the heroine, n fact he's cruel to the heroine in an effort to get what he wants. I understood this and loved it.

So there you have it - my summer reading - how about you guys? Anything good?

Orange is the New Black: Personal Cage Match - Book vs. TV Series

I am about to do something that has never been attempted before here at Storytelling Rules. I am going to cage match with myself.

Okay. We probably have done that if only by saying we were conflicted by something, but I'm making this one official.

I read Orange is the New Black, Piper Kerman's terrific memoir about her stint in federal prison, about two years ago. It was recommended to me by a fellow soccer mom who happens to also be a federal defense attorney. She said it served to remind her about what her clients went through day in and day out. She mentioned it to me after observing that she thought I'd do well in prison when I was crocheting with yarn I'd made out of plastic bags.

I enjoyed the book and then was a little surprised that they were making it into a "dramedy" for Netflix. Kerman has a good sense of humor, but the book wasn't exactly funny. Anyway, I gobbled up the Netflix series. Did I like the book better than the series? Yes. Did I like the series better than the book? Yes.

Hence my need for a cage match. So you can figure out which one of me is speaking (and so I can figure it out, too), I will be either TV Eileen or Book Eileen from henceforth.

TV Eileen: The first few episodes were pretty close to the book, except for one big difference. *SPOILER ALERT (but kind of a minor one)* In the book, Piper's ex-girlfriend who turned her in to the feds did not end up in the same place with her until the very end of the book. In the series, she's there from the very first episode. I was glad. One of the things I didn't like about the book, was Kerman's total disdain for this person with whom she had a long term relationship and for whom she'd done at least one very dangerous and very illegal thing. She loved that woman at some point and in the book didn't seem to want to acknowledge that.

Book Eileen: I understand what you're saying about coming to terms with that relationship, but the point of the book was in many ways about Piper coming to terms with herself. How can she come to terms with herself when she's having to deal with this person who betrayed her? While I think the actress who plays the ex-girlfriend is doing a completely brilliant job (to the point that I kind of want to date her myself), she shouldn't be there.

TV Eileen: Whoa. This show is super sexy!

Book Eileen: Whoa. This show has a lot of sex in it. Kerman didn't shy away from the fact that there was a lot of sex going on in prison, but she wasn't so flipping graphic about it. I feel bad for Natasha Lyonne who seems to spend about half of every episode crouched between some other woman's thighs.

TV Eileen: I love the way that the TV series is showing us the backstories of all these women who are serving time with Piper. It makes their characters so much richer. In the book, you got a sense of their history, but I like knowing more. Their actions are so much better motivated.

Book Eileen: I like knowing more, except that in the process the series is devolving into another one of those prison dramas where *SPOILER ALERT AND THIS TIME A BIG ONE* the main character has to become as brutal as the worst prisoner/guard/warden to survive. In the book, these women formed a family. Yes. There were factions and infighting, but mainly they supported each other and helped each other. I don't recall Kerman ever thinking she was going to be stabbed in the book. Her big disappointment was that *ANOTHER BIG SPOILER ALERT* since she was transferred right before being released, she wasn't going to get a party with a cake and a chance to say good-bye to everyone.

TV Eileen: Her fiance is annoying.

Book Eileen: Totally. He was much less annoying in the book.

So is anybody else watching this? Have they read it? Both? Which Eileen will you support?

P.S. Thank you to everyone who downloaded Petals on the Pillow. It ended up making it into the top 10 of Free Kindle downloads which was kind of a thrill. I hope you enjoyed it!