Molly O'Keefe's Blog, page 23

Storytelling Rules Welcomes K.M. Jackson

I'm excited to introduce today's guest, K.M. Jackson. K.M. (known to many of us as Kwana) is a frequent commenter here on Storytelling Rules. Her first novel, Through the Lens, came out in November of last year.

Mika Walters, the heroine of Through the Lens, is a normal-sized woman working in the not-so-normal world of New York fashion. As longtime assistant to uber-sexy photographer Alejandro Vega, she's tired of being the girl in the background. Now she has her chance. A travel mishap leaves Mika and Alejandro together on an island for three days.

And now, here's K.M. Jackson!


Thanks so much for having me here at Storytelling Rules, Eileen. What an absolute treat this is! To say I’m a little nervous is an understatement.

Relax! We're all friends here and we're excited to have you here. So, what's your drink of choice?

Now I’d love to be able to answer this with some super cool drink, but alas I can’t. I suffer from awful migraines and most alcoholic drinks can trigger one so I drink very sparingly. That said, if I do have a drink I like to make it worth my while. It’s usually one of my husband’s Cosmos. His are so good that he’s ruined going out for Cosmos for me and all my friends.

Ooh! Your own personal bartender? That sounds like a truly special treat. In Through the Lens, Mika is a fashion photographer. I know you studied fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Are you a photographer, too?

I’d secretly love to be a photographer. I studied a bit of photography when I was in high school and though it was just the coolest. I think there is so much beauty in the everyday. Be it a model in a couture gown or a fallen leaf about to go down a sewer grate. Photography is something that I’d really like to pick up again, I mean past just my sad cell phone pictures.

Did your background in fashion inform how you wrote Mika? How?

In some ways it did. I couldn’t help drawing on my past experiences and being on shoots where though I wasn’t the photographers assistant I was there to help out and in many cases I was the only one above a size 2 in the room. So yeah, I know what it’s like to feel a bit abnormal when in reality you are the norm.

What made you start writing romance?

I’ve loved romance since I slipped off with my grandmother’s old Harlequins as a kid. Reading was always a passion of mine and I was always a bit of a dreamer coming up with stories in my head. After leaving fashion once my twins were in grade school and we lost yet, another fab sitter, I decided to one day give writing a try and then like magic, POOF, over ten years later I was published.


Ah, so you're another one of those overnight success stories. So are you a pantser? Plotter? Do characters come first or conflict?

I’m such a Pantser, but I’m in currently therapy for it. Seriously, this now selling on a proposal thing is like scared straight for the Pantser. Talk about painful, but I’ll make it through I’m sure. With me it’s funny, I usually get a bit of each at the same time, character and plot. It’s what if that happened to this person and I have an, “oh that would be wild moment!” and then a story builds from there.

We talk a lot about the trials and tribulations of being a writer. What is something that you feel like you struggle with in writing?

For me the clear answer is self doubt. Sometimes my fear of writing a good story paralyzes me and in turn wastes time which then causes greater frustration. If I could ever get over the fear thing I’d probably be pretty prolific, but then again, I may get cocky and lose my voice. We are who we are. Besides, I’m not sure I’d care for an "I’m All That" writer. A little self doubt is not the worst thing. Makes you strive to be better.

True that. What's next for you?

Next up I have book 2 in my Creative Hearts Series, tentatively titled STILL LIFE which is about a troubled artist and the sexy biker who loves her. After that we have BY DESIGN which is about an up and coming designer living and loving in the not so glam world of New York fashion. I can’t wait to get to that one. I may need a therapist on speed dial for it. LOL.
Thanks so much once again for having me here today. As I said it was a real treat and such and honor.

We're thrilled to have you! Look for K.M. at her website, on Facebook and on Twitter.

Things I Love: Ruthie Knox

This Valentine's Week, we are celebrating all the things we love and I really adore Ruthie Knox. I adore her characters, her voice, her utterly revealing and human but still smoking hot sex scenes. I love her tweets, and the occasionally hilarious stories she tells me from the front lines of her life (which are the front lines of most of our lives, kids, family, home - her's just sound more fun). And I really like Ruthie. She's a person I wished lived closer. She's smart, funny, sincere and all of that shines through her books. Her last two Novellas - Room At The Inn and How To Misbehave are incredible examples of the power a great novella can have. And the best part is - she's very busy right now, so there's alot more of Ruthie's work to come, including a trilogy starting with Along Came Trouble, which I've had the pleasure of reading - and it's everything I've come to expect in a Ruthie Knox story. I strongly encourage you to check this woman out if you haven't.

I asked Ruthie a few questions at about 3:30 in the morning, and she answered at about 3:30 the following morning - another thing I love about her. And for one lucky commentor there will be a digital copy of How To Misbehave!!

How did you get into romance writing? Was it something you always wanted to do? You were a freelance academic editor, right? With a
secret life? A longing in your soul?

Totally. I was an academic first (I did a history Ph.D.), then a freelance academic editor and obsessive knitter, and then I had a baby, and I
didn't sleep for 11 months. The knitting kind of ground to a halt, because whereas I used to do it early in the morning with a cup of tea and in the hour or so before bed, now I spent those periods of time laying on any flat surface, either sleeping or wishing I were dead. Um, in the normal way for new mothers. Not the actually suicidal way.

So there I was, taking care of my kid and editing about 30 hours a week,and very tired, and I bought a Kindle to help me with the reading-while-breastfeeding thing. And Harlequin was giving away a six-pack of romances for free, so of course! I read those, and then I read 9,000 more--mostly Harlequin Blaze--and then one day at yoga, I
had an idea for a Blaze of my own, so I wrote it. Then I wrote another one (which, revised, became About Last Night), and a third one (Ride with Me), which I used to get an agent and sold to Loveswept. From putting my very first words of my first manuscript on the page to selling to Loveswept took eight months--which means that everything sincehas been a pretty wild ride.


I didn't always want to be a writer. I love to read and liked to edit,enjoyed writing papers in college, didn't mind writing a
dissertation--but I thought I had no ideas for stories. What category romance gave me was a structure to work with--a sort of mental
scaffolding to build a story around. And if it weren't for that scaffolding, I never even would have*tried* to write a book. It is the trying that teaches you how, of
course. I never knew that, but now I get it. The only way to become a writer is to write some books.

Duh.

But the progression from historian to editor-who-knits to romance writer felt very natural, odd as that may sound. I consider myself to be a
rational, analytical person, but I have this streak of (mostly) buried romanticism, and I'm also deeply interested in what makes people tick.
Throughout my life, I've balanced thinky pursuits with art-making of one sort or another. Romance writing is, for me, a lovely mix of the
creative and the analytical/rational.

How did Ride With Me happen?

Well. Yes. So I was writing in something like total isolation (though I did manage to befriend the lovely Serenity Woods early on -- but even
she wasn't reading my daily output), and while I had a vague idea that I might someday wish to be published, it didn't dictate my decisions in any significant way. Writing was still something I was doing for fun, kind of on a lark. I got a copy of Adventure Cycling magazine in the mail, which is the publication of the Adventure Cycling Association. This is a group I belong to that exists to promote long-distance travel by bicycle. They have a "Companion Wanted" page in the magazine where people write little personal ads to find someone
to ride with them across the U.S. or in Peru or wherever. And I thought, "That would be a great way for a hero and heroine to meet. Especially if they HATED each other." Since there wasn't anyone around to tell me *not* to write it, I wrote it. It was great fun. I got some help on the early chapters from Harlequin Blaze author Isabel Sharpe,
but for the most part Ride with Me was the result of me writing about something I found entertaining and fun and sexy, sort of figuring that ifI liked all this stuff, someone else probably would, too.


When I'd finished, I thought it was pretty good, so I pitched it to agents. "I am writing to inquire about your interest in representing COMPANION WANTED, a contemporary erotic romance novel with bicycles."This worked on exactly one agent, which was, luckily, the number of agents I needed. :-)

You have written full length, 100,000 word books, shorter almost category length and novellas - do you have a preference? Is there something you've learned about writing each of those - I keep wanting to say distances. I'm amazed by your novellas. For my money, you and Courtney Milan own that length (distance) - do you have a sense when thinking of an idea, what story is better suited to which length?

I don't think I have a preference. As a reader, I like longer books best,because I read quickly and I'm stingy. But as a writer, I find I enjoy something different about every length. When you write a manuscript that's 110,000 words long, it's harder to keep from getting lost in the middle, and it's more difficult to manage the inevitable anxiety that's part of the writing process--I don't know what I'm doing, this is boring, there's no story here, these characters make no sense, I don't know what happens next, blah blah blah failpants. For a
20,000-word novella, it might take me a week to get the first draft down; a 100,000-word book will take me six weeks or two months. It's
hard to maintain my love for the story, my confidence in its worth, for that long. It's all just much BIGGER. But by the same token, I often love the long books more in the end, for what I've managed to achieve with them. So there are pluses and minuses.


To be compared to Courtney Milan on any metric is a thrill for me. Itseems to me (having written only three short things in my entire life) that in a novella, it's more important to have a tight concept--one problem to solve, a strong inciting incident, something with a lot of muscle that will pull the reader in and propel the story along. There is less space to develop character and no words to waste. The biggest challenge in a romantic novella, I think, is to sell the romance itself, especially if you have a short timeline. Give me 100,000
words, and I can convince you my characters fell in love in three days.But in 30,000 words? Tough to do.



You seoem to be a totally natural social media user - do you like social media? At times it's such an awkward balance between promotion and friendship - and courting readers and reviewers, but somehow knowing when to stay out of the conversation and when to join - I'm at a loss at times. How big a piece of the pie is it for you in terms of promo?
Do you have guidelines you try to follow?

I love Twitter. I like Facebook sometimes, dislike it other times, but don't mind using it as a tool to connect to readers who prefer it. I like answering email and making friends online. I love talking about romance with readers, reviewers, other writers--just *love* it. Could doit all day.

I agree, the balance between promotion and friendship can be awkward. I find it helps to slough off the pointless worry as much as I can. Not everyone will like everything I do on the Internet. There isn't any perfect way to do it. So I just try to be me, and have fun, and let the chips fall.

I think most people appreciate authenticity and honesty, so that even if they get irritated with me for excessive retweeting or using the f-word or whatever it is I'm doing "wrong" today, they won't hold it against me.

It probably helps that I'm deeply conflict averse and a serious people-pleaser. My default mode is, "Let's all be friends!" Not a bad default mode for social media.

You have a lot of books coming out this year, and more in the works and you are the mom to a busy four year old - what's your schedule like?
What time of day is your "I can never get anything done in my life because I am constantly cleaning up dropped toast and lego!" freak out?


My schedule is adequate but fragile. I have about 30 hours of babysitting a week, which I spend in my office working while my son plays with the
sitter out in the living room. There's a morning shift and an afternoon shift; my husband and I split the middle of the day, late afternoon / bedtime, and morning before the sitter comes. We have a schedule that governs when we get a workout. I usually get up at 3:30 a.m. to write, because it's dark and quiet and no one needs me. I love that time of day the best.

I tend not to freak out except when the schedule gets broken, which it does pretty often. Whenever our son gets sick, or a babysitter gets sick, or a babysitter randomly flakes, or my husband has to travel for work, etc., everything falls apart and I start hyperventilating. But, you know, "most precious days of our lives" and all that. I try to get several hikes/runs/walks/bike rides in every week and endeavor not to take myself too seriously. That helps, too.

Learning about romance through The Bachelor

Reading Steph's post yesterday got me thinking about The Bachelor, and how often it repeats the same things over and over in each season.

I've watched more seasons than I'm proud to admit, but not all of them, and truthfully, this year, I'm trying not to get sucked in, but it is really hard. There are elements that I enjoy about the series, but the constant repetition, the bitching and the crying are not those things.

I do like watching how people act in what is a very unreal environment. Take 25 lovely women, who in real life, would probably be the prettiest girl amongst their crowd of friends, and put them in a room where all the girls are gorgeous and they have to fight for the attention of one man.

Genius, right! That Burnett guy is really smart. The one thing I have noticed is that in almost every season where it's the guy doing the choosing, the girl he is attracted to the most that first night goes really, really far. A classic case of the little bachelor doing a lot of the thinking for him.

He likes the way she looks, and speaks and walks and determines his impression of her and it's done. It takes a lot for him not to choose that girl in the end, no matter how many other girls try to tell him she's a horrible person. See, this current season, Ben's season, Jake's season and more.

And the girl who gets that attention, loves, loves, loves that she beat out all those other women. Because really, it's about the competition and not finding love. There isn't an internet dating site out there that has a worse track record of creating lasting relationships than the Bachelor, and I'm counting Ashley Madison in there.

Genius again, and it's why I like the Bachelor better than the Bachelorette, because in general women form a first impression that can be altered, by the guy's behaviour.

So the Bachelor shows us a lot about human nature, nothing about romance, no matter how many roses, jewellery and scenic views they throw into the mix. But it is facinating to watch.

Drat! I think I just talked myself into watching again.

Love's Reality

So many who follow this blog may know that my guilty secret is the show the Bachelor/Bachelorette and yes, Bachelor Pad (which by far is the worst and the most fun to watch.) This season’s Bachelor featured 25 Beautiful women… as usual. Although one girl was missing part of her left arm: Sarah. She was quite pretty and explained she’d been born with the deformity. Sean, the Bachelor, took her out on a one on one date and seemed interested at first, but eventually that interest dissipated as his interest in other girls took hold.

Once he decided he wasn’t keeping her around, he didn’t wait for a rose ceremony but instead let her go immediately. I think he thought he was sparing her not being picked. He had previously set a precedent for being somewhat unconventional. Part of me thought that he treated her differently because of her deformity – which makes him a jerk. Part of me thought since he had previously done things differently and this was just another example of that it might have nothing to do with her deformity. He could have just been a sensitive guy.

But all of me felt bad for Sarah. Because as she left, like so many other jilted girls before her on this show, she cried and said how she had heard it all before. How sweet she was. How nice she was. How pretty she was. How “someday” she was going to make someone so lucky… but how that “day” never came for her. And again – was this only because of her arm? Was this the one thing separating her from a lifetime of happiness? And that’s when it hit me… Maybe. Or maybe not.

It’s really hard to know what triggers two people into falling in love. It’s just as hard to know what stops them. I write books all the time about the myriad of reasons that have kept people from falling in love for so long only to suddenly find it with that one special person. So many of us, basically all of us not in love with someone right now, probably have a reason. Sarah thinks it might be her arm. Some probably think it’s their weight. Some because they have acne or one leg is shorter than the other. Or maybe because they live at home, or don’t have a job, or whatever.

The reality is that yes, the “thing” MIGHT be the reason. There are people out there who won’t be interested in another person because of XY or Z. However, it also might NOT be the reason, because the truth about love is that it can be mysterious and elusive.I guess I don’t have a point other than I had this sad feeling about how hard it might be for a young girl who is different to find love. But then I immediately realized not only a) as brave as she was to go on this show she certainly doesn’t want my pity - but more importantly b) we’re ALL a little different.

Love is magic. As we get ready for our big Valentines Day bonanza week at Storytelling Rules… I just wanted to remind all of you who are happy in love how special it really really is. You too probably had a reason to as to why you weren't in love... right up until the point you were.
 

Warm Bodies and World Views

I went to see Warm Bodies the other night, and while I liked it, I didn't love it.

I think this movie, for me anyway, suffered from a great trailer that increased my expectations far too high.  Or perhaps suffered from my seeing the movie after a long day of banging my fingers and head against my keyboard...


And after I got home, I started thinking about a lot of writerly things. Not so much about the nuts and bolts of storytelling but about themes and world views and the elements that underlie fiction.

One expects, in certain kinds of fiction, for there to be a message. Something deeper that makes you think; perhaps something that not every casual reader recognizes or understands without the help of academic analysis... (And often academics see things in fiction that the author never intended...)

But even in most genre fiction, (which most academics dismiss), a writer's world view comes through in his or her voice and storytelling choices. Again, often many/most readers "miss" the themes or deep questions the work raises. In fact, I would argue that these themes are missed by readers more often in genre fiction, because these books are such quick, fun reads that readers don't stop to reflect. And that's okay. I think all fiction needs to engage readers first and foremost. There is nothing wrong with reading for entertainment and a lot right about the value of reading as opposed to TV or movies or playing video games...

And I also don't mind (that much) when my books are accused of being shallow or fluff -- even though I think both words are highly derogatory terms to assign to something that an author has spent their time and effort on, and has shed blood or tears over. But whatever.

Regardless of how shallow some people might think my stories are, I do think about things like theme. A lot. In fact, I might think about them too much and let questions of what a reader might glean from my characters' actions sway how I choose to have them act or react. I want my books to reflect things I believe in, for the most part.

And in that, I'm starting to wonder if maybe I hold myself back at times. Maybe I interfere too much with my characters.... I mean... if I'd had a similar idea to Stephenie Meyers at the same time she did, and had written a teen vampire book--even with the same world building rules and basic story line--mine would have been different, because I would not have wanted to be promoting stalkerish, emotionally abusive boyfriends or abstinence-above-all-else or anti-abortion messages or teen marriage... And as a result, it's possible I wouldn't have written such an emotionally compelling trilogy that captured as many fans as she did. Who knows...

While writing Deviants, I worried--a lot--about how the Burn character comes off, and whether or not my heroine, Glory, might seem like a battered girlfriend who's forgives the violence of a boy who can't control his temper because she gives him the excuse of: it's not his fault.

Well, if you've read the book, you know it's not his fault. Not totally, anyway. And she's done things that are even harder to forgive. But, what if my book gives a subtle message to girls in abusive relationships that they should forgive their boyfriends? Hmmm... This upsets me.
Of course, in all my reviews so far, I don't think even one person has said this. Not in a review I've read the whole way through, anyway.

And Warm Bodies made me think of something else I've been struggling with as I finish The Dust Chronicles trilogy. Something I may have been thinking about/worrying about too much.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD -- BOTH FOR WARM BODIES AND FOR BOOKS 2 AND 3 IN THE DUST CHRONICLES (skip to bold text to avoid)

You see, in Warm Bodies, the zombies can recover. They can become alive again. They are sentient beings trapped in dead bodies. The science of this re-animation doesn't make any sense, but it is fiction after all.

But the deeper question it raises is: Is it ethically okay to kill a monster, when it's possible, just possible, that the monster might one day recover from being a monster?

The author of Warm Bodies (I assume in the book as well as the movie) solves this by basically having two levels of monsters... And that's something I've considered too, as I wrap up The Dust Chronicles. But I'm not sure. I actually think my "resolution" of this moral/ethical question might have more to do with self-defense as an excuse to kill, rather than "it's okay to kill a monster". We'll see. Revisions await, which is normally when I get all these things straight.

And perhaps only over-analytical nerds like me notice or worry about things like this. 

Most people don't watch Warm Bodies and think about issues like murder and euthanasia, or stealing someone's memories and emotions, or addiction and recovery and redemption.

Rather, they think: that dude is cute for a zombie and true love saved the world. Awe. How sweet.

Burns Supper

I've been going on and on about this for a while, so I apologize if you're sick of it. I can't seem to stop myself, though. I attended my first ever Burns Supper on Saturday. I know it wasn't really Burns night, but my Scottish friends were in Long Beach on the correct night and figured better late than never.

So at about 7:00 on Saturday, a group of us showed up at the home of fabulous author Catriona McPherson and her handsome husband Neil McRoberts. We had quite an eclectic crew. Some academics, some writers, a software engineer/musician/photographer and an irrepressible Frenchman, to name a few.

My sweetheart gave the Toast to the Lassies and it was incredibly sweet. I was then charged with giving the Lassie's Reply, which I took quite seriously. Mainly. At any rate, I read a lot of Robert Burns' poetry and picked up a few handy biographical facts.

The highlight of the whole thing, however, was Neil giving the Immortal Memory. He gave it all an historical context, tied Burns' poetry to both the French Revolution and the creation of the Constitution and, I must say, looked mighty fine in a kilt.

It was all topped off then by this fabulous trifle, which had undergone a serious transplant from one dish to another earlier in the day and yet still made what I now know is the required farting noise of a good trifle.


Oh, and the haggis wasn't half bad either! Especially when you mushed it up with the potatoes and the turnips.

Crazy Thing Called Love World Tour!! Or making my mom feel bad...

Ha. Not really. But let me tell you a little story... so, every Thanksgiving when my family and I move in with my parents for about a week, my mom says ABOUT A MILLION TIMES "it would be so great if you could come down just you. And we could shopping and see movies..." I totally understand, and this sounds kind of dreamy to me too. Visiting my hometown, catching up with old friends, sleeping in in the bed I discovered sleeping in, in. HA! So, I decided I would come down near the release of Crazy Thing Called Love - I'd do some signings, some other fun promo stuff and let my mom buy me a pedicure. I organized some events, told my mom the dates A MILLION TIMES and was ready to go.

Last month we were talking about this trip and mom asked me what the dates were again. This has happened about a million times, so I told her and then there was a deadly silence and then mom moaned. Come to find out, Mom and Dad planned to go to Florida that week. Yes. That week. Mom got the dates confused. And then couldn't get her money back on the deposit. And so, I am heading down to see my parents for about twelve hours. And then it's just me. And a rental car. And man, I'm getting the deluxe pedicure. DELUXE!

But I'm also doing some fun promo events. So, if you are in the area - come see me!!

Tuesday February 5 - Lady Jane Salon - Naperville 7pm
I’ll be reading from CRAZY THING CALLED LOVE. There will be fantastic giveaways, books on sale and my parents will be there!
Reading Salon Location:
Le Chocolat du Bouchard
2nd Floor (aka The Loft)
129 South Washington Street
Naperville, IL 60540
http://ladyjanessalonnaperville.com/

Friday February 8 - The Cypress House 4pm - 6pm
The Cypress House is a fantastic shop in Northern Illinois with beautiful and unique gifts and for the event, Kurn’s Chocolate will be having a tasting of some of their best-selling chocolates.
718 Tenth Avenue
Rochelle, IL 61068
http://cypresshouse.net/

Saturday February 9 - The Books Connection 2pm - 4pm
19043 Middlebelt Road
Livonia, MI 48152
http://www.thebooksconnection.com/

Wednesday, February 13 - Windy City RWA Meeting 7-9pm
The Naperville Chamber of Commerce Meeting room, downtown Naperville
http://www.windycityrwa.org/

Celebrity and truth

One of the things I really loved about Crazy Thing Called Love was the idea of two celebrities in their own fields, who appeared on the outside to be successful and in control and underneath were a mass of insecurity. And it was insecurity that drove Maddy and Billy to work as hard as they did.

There is a lovely truth to that idea, something missing a lot in this weird cult of celebrity that drives a lot of our entertainment reporting.

Because even in "candid" moments, most celebrities are trying to sell us something. Jessica Simpson is selling weight loss, with the tagline,"if I can do it, then so can you." But what she never talks about is the personal trainer, the nutritionist, the chef and the team of nannies that  are there to ensure she doesn't fail, or the $4 million dollars she was paid to lose the weight.

Or when a celebrity becomes an expert on motherhood. Jessica Alba is becoming one of those, with a line of eco diapers, but again, never mentions the team of nannies that are constantly in her house to help her day and night.

To me it's a lie by omission, because the tag line is out there, "I can do it and so can you", without discussing the help behind the scenes.

One person who does speak pretty candidly is Elizabeth Banks, who recently gave an interview where she talked about giving her nannies(yep, plural) two weeks off at Christmas, and those two weeks, with two young children were tough. It was hard for her and her husband, and that she admitted it makes her rare.

I love fiction because it gets to the truth behind a person, we get deep into their psyche and see what makes them tick, and maybe because of that it's made me more annoyed by the lack of truth out there.

From now on when someone is touted as a weight loss, or parenting role model, I'd like them to have achieved something by themselves. So the woman who lost 100 pounds, while working and raising a family is far more interesting to me. Give me the single mom who raised six college educated children, because she has knowledge to impart and no more of this celebrity fiction.

I'd like more truth in my celebrity reporting, please.

Crazy Thing Called Love... Best for last?

I’m not going to say Crazy Thing Called Love is the best of the Crooked Creek Series, but it’s definitely one of the best three… I know I can’t help it. I love them all so much. With this series coming to an end we all started to think about other things that have come to an end. Something things that made us happy and some things that made us sad. In honor of Molly who loves lists I’ll go with my top five happy endings and my top my five sad endings.
Sad:
1.      Series finale of Mash. I was maybe only 10 but even I understood that this was a major thing. As a writer I can appreciate the impact of the war on Hawkeye, why he couldn’t say goodbye and why those rocks were his only way to communicate.
2.      The Epilogue of Harry Potter. I knew she had written it years prior as a way to get her to end of the story. It was completely cheesy but I appreciated having those pages tucked away somewhere for years getting her to the end of this story.
3.      Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins breaking up. In Hollywood nothing is given when it comes to marriage but I thought these guys were real deal forever. I think they were the  beginning of the end for me. So by the time I got to Rhea Perlman and Danny Devito I was immune.
4.      Mockingjay. This was sad for me because I just didn’t love how she ended this series. I felt like Katniss didn’t embrace what she was supposed to be become. Hunger Games will always be one of my favorite books. For me it ends there.
5.      Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series. I loved this series of brothers and sisters and have them all on my keeper shelf. But for some reason I just haven’t been able to move beyond them with other Quinn books. So I will always treasure this series.
Happy
1.      My favorite happy ending is always the one I write. If I’m not getting teary eyed as I type the words The End then there is a problem with the book.
2.      West Wing series finale. While I had issues with the show after Aaron Sorkin left and I think it took them way too long to get Josh and Donna together, in the end they did get Josh and Donna together and the show ended with them living together hopefully happily ever after.
3.      The Deathly Hallows. While the epilogue made me sad and nostalgic because I knew it was the end, I was really happy how she ended, but more importantly that she ended it. So many series, books television and movies would be better served with an actual ending. Rather than just going on and on until people eventually give up.
4.      Friends series finale. This show ended exactly when it should have. It was still on top but definitely winding down. With them I really felt as if a major part of my life had ended too. Their ending was all about transitioning to another part of their lives as adults. Which let’s face it, happens all the time.
5.      This one was easy… Crazy Thing Called Love. I loved finally getting to Billy’s story and he did not disappoint. My favorite thing about this series ending, is that I know Molly’s hard at work on the next one. And if the first book in that series is any indication it’s going to be another “wild” ride.
What about your favorite ending? Worst ending?

Is Celebrity Love always Crazy?

I'm so excited that, Crazy Thing Called Love, the final book in Molly's fabulous Crooked Creek series is out!


This is such a great book, (even if Billy's face doesn't have a scar on the cover), and one of the many questions it poses to the reader is whether or not fame and love can mix.

It seems like there are so few celebrity couples who make it, and it's not hard to understand the extra stress that comes down on these pairs.

For Billy and Maddy, Molly's couple in CRAZY THING CALLED LOVE, they met and feel in love as kids and when he got his shot at the big time (via hockey) they got married (way too young) and she supported him and let his career take center stage.

But that meant she never got to grow up and be her own person and have the spotlight shine on her, at all...

So, after they split, it's not really that difficult to imagine how or why she ended up in show business. Question is... When they meet again many years later, and both are in the public eye... can they figure out a way to fix their very private relationship?

Love it. And of course, as is true in all of Molly's books, there are about a gazillion other things going on too. So great.

Who are your favorite celebrity couples? Who are you rooting for?

I vote for Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck.

So cute. And (touch wood) they seem so solid.