Molly O'Keefe's Blog, page 24
January 28, 2013
Brushes with Greatness
In honor of Molly's release of Crazy Thing Called Love, I'm going to blog about celebrities today. In particular, I'm going to blog about my own brushes with celebrities.
First of all, there's my cousin Justin Halpern. You know, the kid who started the Sh!t My Dad Says Twitter feed and went on to have more Twitter followers than Barack Obama and to have his book be on the New York Times Bestseller List for well over 16 weeks.
Now I've had plenty of brushes with Justin. He's my cousin, after all. I remember fondly when he was 3 and tried to pee down the handmade wooden flute my sister had given me as a birthday present. I also fondly remember playing a game of chase with him that ended with me putting my butt through a plate glass window. More recently, Justin and his wife stopped by and we all had dinner at my house. At the end of the evening, we were getting my mother back into her new minivan with the slick new wheelchair ramp. We didn't have much practice with it and damn near drove her off the side of the ramp. Have you seen the end of Waking Ned Devine? Seriously. It was nearly that bad. I turned, horrified, to Justin and whispered, "we're going to kill her." He put his arms around me, gave me a big hug and told me I was doing great and that my sisters and I were the best daughters he'd ever seen. It was just what I needed to hear at that moment.
My second favorite brush with greatness would be the time I accidentally hit Dave Eggers in the crotch. It was the first year I'd been invited to be part of Authors on the Move. Eggers was the Keynote speaker. Authors on the Move is truly Sacramento's premier literary event. It's a big fundraiser for the library and, to be honest, it is a crazy amount of fun. It was the end of the evening and I was walking to my car with another author and talking about what a great time I'd had and swung my arm back hard to illustrate some point and managed to basically punch Mr. Eggers right in the weiner. He was very gracious, but man, did he hightail it to his car after that!
I also nearly knocked Nora Roberts over in my haste to get to Eileen Dreyer and tell her how much I loved her books.
Okay. Those are my brushes with celebrities. What are yours?
First of all, there's my cousin Justin Halpern. You know, the kid who started the Sh!t My Dad Says Twitter feed and went on to have more Twitter followers than Barack Obama and to have his book be on the New York Times Bestseller List for well over 16 weeks.
Now I've had plenty of brushes with Justin. He's my cousin, after all. I remember fondly when he was 3 and tried to pee down the handmade wooden flute my sister had given me as a birthday present. I also fondly remember playing a game of chase with him that ended with me putting my butt through a plate glass window. More recently, Justin and his wife stopped by and we all had dinner at my house. At the end of the evening, we were getting my mother back into her new minivan with the slick new wheelchair ramp. We didn't have much practice with it and damn near drove her off the side of the ramp. Have you seen the end of Waking Ned Devine? Seriously. It was nearly that bad. I turned, horrified, to Justin and whispered, "we're going to kill her." He put his arms around me, gave me a big hug and told me I was doing great and that my sisters and I were the best daughters he'd ever seen. It was just what I needed to hear at that moment.
My second favorite brush with greatness would be the time I accidentally hit Dave Eggers in the crotch. It was the first year I'd been invited to be part of Authors on the Move. Eggers was the Keynote speaker. Authors on the Move is truly Sacramento's premier literary event. It's a big fundraiser for the library and, to be honest, it is a crazy amount of fun. It was the end of the evening and I was walking to my car with another author and talking about what a great time I'd had and swung my arm back hard to illustrate some point and managed to basically punch Mr. Eggers right in the weiner. He was very gracious, but man, did he hightail it to his car after that!
I also nearly knocked Nora Roberts over in my haste to get to Eileen Dreyer and tell her how much I loved her books.
Okay. Those are my brushes with celebrities. What are yours?
WINNERS of the Happy Endings Blog Hop!
Thanks everyone who entered the contest and decided to follow us - we appreciate it! We've got some great stuff coming up including a BOOKS WE LOVE week over Valentine's Day, with interviews and giveaways with some of OUR favorite authors. Be such to check back in with us.
And our winners for the blog hop -
Winner of the Gift card to a book retailer of your choice! Jeannie Baker-Platt
Winners of a a whack of books Brandy Boone and Jennifer Spence Mill-Irving
Congrats!
And our winners for the blog hop -
Winner of the Gift card to a book retailer of your choice! Jeannie Baker-Platt
Winners of a a whack of books Brandy Boone and Jennifer Spence Mill-Irving
Congrats!
CRAZY THING CALLED LOVE!! Out this week!
Hello to all our new followers! The winners of the Happy ending Blog hop will be announced later today (once Maureen comes home from visiting family, she's the only one who speaks rafflecopter)!
On Tuesday Crazy Thing Called Love is released! The third and final book in my Crooked Creek series. A few months ago when Stephanie's fantastic One Final Step was released she said - It's the best thing she'd ever done. And I know the common refrain from authors is that they love their books like children and could never pick of favorite - and mostly that's true. But sometimes a book comes a long that kicks my butt.(I'm looking at you Wild Child). And sometimes a book comes along like a gift - Crazy Thing Called Love was a gift. Mostly, my hero Billy Wilkins, with all his torture and all his pain finally outmatched by his desire to be love and be loved, was a gift.
This is my favorite book.
I hope you'll check it out and let me know what you think.
I'm also running a very fun CRAZY LITTLE THINGS contest on my facebook page.
What about you, fellow authors? Are some books gifts and others problem children?
On Tuesday Crazy Thing Called Love is released! The third and final book in my Crooked Creek series. A few months ago when Stephanie's fantastic One Final Step was released she said - It's the best thing she'd ever done. And I know the common refrain from authors is that they love their books like children and could never pick of favorite - and mostly that's true. But sometimes a book comes a long that kicks my butt.(I'm looking at you Wild Child). And sometimes a book comes along like a gift - Crazy Thing Called Love was a gift. Mostly, my hero Billy Wilkins, with all his torture and all his pain finally outmatched by his desire to be love and be loved, was a gift.
This is my favorite book.
I hope you'll check it out and let me know what you think.
I'm also running a very fun CRAZY LITTLE THINGS contest on my facebook page.
What about you, fellow authors? Are some books gifts and others problem children?
January 19, 2013
Happy Endings Blog Hop
Cue Beavis and Butthead laughter...
#HEGIVEAWAY So the idea is to share a happy ending in your life. But I don't feel like I've had all that many "endings". Do you? I feel like I'm still in the middle of so much and really, it's just too soon to tell. The two best happy endings I can think of are my pregnancies. Two healthy children, the beauty of epidurals. Win/win. With my son my water broke at a book signing. That was spectacular. And at the hospital, they gave me an epidural and I was so relaxed I watched some of the winter Olympics - Brody Miller, to be exact. And then when it came time to push it was over and done in 45 minutes. I felt like a rock star. Lucy's birth was a bit more nerve-wracking, mostly because we'd been told she was going to be over ten pounds and I didn't want to feel any part of that. But the epidural wasn't working, so they kept pushing more pain meds. (I would pass out between contractions and then when the pain started I would wake up like a Bear coming out of hibernation, YELLING at everyone and then the pain would subside and I would apologize and pass out). But then Lucy's heart rate slowed down and the doctor had to give me a stern talking to about pushing. It was all very surreal but in the end, I had a beautiful, not nearly ten pound baby girl. So those are my two happy endings.!
#HEGIVEAWAY So the idea is to share a happy ending in your life. But I don't feel like I've had all that many "endings". Do you? I feel like I'm still in the middle of so much and really, it's just too soon to tell. The two best happy endings I can think of are my pregnancies. Two healthy children, the beauty of epidurals. Win/win. With my son my water broke at a book signing. That was spectacular. And at the hospital, they gave me an epidural and I was so relaxed I watched some of the winter Olympics - Brody Miller, to be exact. And then when it came time to push it was over and done in 45 minutes. I felt like a rock star. Lucy's birth was a bit more nerve-wracking, mostly because we'd been told she was going to be over ten pounds and I didn't want to feel any part of that. But the epidural wasn't working, so they kept pushing more pain meds. (I would pass out between contractions and then when the pain started I would wake up like a Bear coming out of hibernation, YELLING at everyone and then the pain would subside and I would apologize and pass out). But then Lucy's heart rate slowed down and the doctor had to give me a stern talking to about pushing. It was all very surreal but in the end, I had a beautiful, not nearly ten pound baby girl. So those are my two happy endings.! The Happy Endings Giveaway Hop was organized by Reading Romances!
Be Sure to like our blog and leave a comment to win!
So this is what you win, if you share your happy ending in the comments - a whack of Drunk Writer Talk Books and A 15 dollar gift card to the online book retailer of your choice.
One winner of the gift card and two winners of the whack of books:
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January 18, 2013
Finding a way into a story
I watched Dredd recently. (I do love schlocky thrillers) and it was way better than I expected and a pretty simple story.
Anyone who remembers that terrible Judge Dredd movie with Sylvester Stallone knows how badly the violent comic can be mismanaged into something so terribly, terribly wrong.
But Dredd is a relatively small movie, which got half decent reviews, all of which mentioned the over the top violence (so please don't watch if you're squeamish)
What I liked about it was it over performed to my expectations, the story was simple, but straightforward and the performances were half decent. And they made smart story telling decisions. For those of you that are not familiar with Judge Dredd, he's one of a small group of police/judges in a futuristic America, sort of a sheriff, with the authority to both determine and undertake sentencing of lawbreakers on the spot.
So the movie introduces a new world, and a new system of policing and they do this, by using the rookie judge to explain it all, without really having the so you know Bob conversation. And it allows the movie to keep the Judge Dredd character mysterious, so much so we never see him without his helmet on, so we never see his full face. It's a clever move, because it keeps the aura of unpredictability to his character, but also can make him larger than life, because we see him through another's eyes.
so we have the rookie who is the the hero and struggling through an impossible situation and we have Dredd who is also heroic, but in a different way. One character is rooted very much in her vulnerability and one who appears invulnerable. And then the story gets to play with twisting that around. Seriously clever.
And the villain is a woman really well played by Lena Headly, so all in all a really good, gorey thriller.
Anyone who remembers that terrible Judge Dredd movie with Sylvester Stallone knows how badly the violent comic can be mismanaged into something so terribly, terribly wrong.
But Dredd is a relatively small movie, which got half decent reviews, all of which mentioned the over the top violence (so please don't watch if you're squeamish)
What I liked about it was it over performed to my expectations, the story was simple, but straightforward and the performances were half decent. And they made smart story telling decisions. For those of you that are not familiar with Judge Dredd, he's one of a small group of police/judges in a futuristic America, sort of a sheriff, with the authority to both determine and undertake sentencing of lawbreakers on the spot.
So the movie introduces a new world, and a new system of policing and they do this, by using the rookie judge to explain it all, without really having the so you know Bob conversation. And it allows the movie to keep the Judge Dredd character mysterious, so much so we never see him without his helmet on, so we never see his full face. It's a clever move, because it keeps the aura of unpredictability to his character, but also can make him larger than life, because we see him through another's eyes.
so we have the rookie who is the the hero and struggling through an impossible situation and we have Dredd who is also heroic, but in a different way. One character is rooted very much in her vulnerability and one who appears invulnerable. And then the story gets to play with twisting that around. Seriously clever.
And the villain is a woman really well played by Lena Headly, so all in all a really good, gorey thriller.
January 17, 2013
The Big Finish
See now as a romance writer, that title could totally have different meanings. Unfortunately, the one in which I’m referring to isn’t going to be that much fun. This weekend I’ve dedicated myself to the task of finishing my book. We’re talking three days – I had to take a day off - three chapters PLUS putting the damn thing altogether to see if makes sense.I’m dreading it. Because I know my back is going to hurt for sitting and typing so long. My brain is going to hurt when I re-read the thing back to me and I curse at how stupid I was in Chapter Four and how I didn’t even know what I was doing in Chapter Nine. Of course I’m looking forward to it too. Because I will know the satisfaction of typing The End on another completed book. Because I will no longer have that feeling of dread that I should probably be writing instead of reading a book I was looking forward to. This isn’t my first rodeo… (I’ve been using that expression a lot and I’ve never even been to a rodeo so that’s kind of weird.) and the truth is I really really hope it won’t be my last.Because as much as I’m dreading this weekend and as hard as this book has been, there is another one to write. I can see it out there on the horizon and it calls to me.
January 16, 2013
Stories Based on Truth
Eileen's post yesterday got me thinking about a few "based on a true story" movies I've seen recently.
In the last couple of weeks, I have seen Lincoln, The Impossible and Hyde Park on Hudson, all based on true stories. And I'm dying to see Zero Dark Thirty, regardless of the waterboarding. (Even if it worked, and I'm not saying that I necessarily believe that it did. That doesn't make it right in my eyes... But that's not what this post is about.)
Lincoln was great. Daniel Day Lewis. Wow. I've never met Lincoln (I know, weird, right?) but I truly believed that Day Lewis was him. Who knows if the accent was right, but it was consistent and constant and not affected or false, and it made me see Lincoln and not DDL or any other character he's played. Who knows if Lincoln loved and doted on his youngest son that much, but the father son bond and the absolute love he had for his son was palpable and believable... Who knows exactly what he said to his wife when they were alone, but I found their relationship touching too. And the one with his older son... (And not to go all Anne Hathaway, but you've got to admire Sally Field for fighting so hard to get this part, even though she's much older than DDL and movies always tend to cast younger women with older men, not the other way around... Sally Field continues to fight and break barriers in Hollywood.)
A very interesting film. And I'd like to think that all the details about the politics and the compromises and who Tommy Lee Jones was sleeping with were accurate. But I don't know. And I'm not compelled to start researching to find out. I believed this movie. And learned a lot.
Then The Impossible. Wow. This is a really great film, if hard to watch in places. Naomi Watts does pain really well. And she suffers through a lot of pain... But this movie was a really amazing way to humanize and personalize what was the greatest natural disaster of our times. We all saw the photos of what happened in Thailand, but it was so far away and this film made it all so real and close to home...
In a few places near the end, I almost let my inner skeptic come out. I started thinking, how could they possibly know that this happened? How could they know he walked past there right then? But then at the climax of the story a few minutes later, I realized it just didn't matter how accurate some of these tiny details were. They were dramatic and heart breaking and created so much emotion and suspense and tension in a story that otherwise might lack tension... The audience goes into the movie knowing (or at least being 99% sure) about how it's going to end. But like Apollo 13 and other movies where you know the ending before it starts, the filmmakers and screenwriters used these details to create a lot of suspense.
But is it based on facts? Well, they show a photo of the real family at the end. Who are Spanish. I think? Definitely not British. But I forgive the filmmakers because, um, Ewan McGreggor. I forgive any change to the facts that lets him be cast in a film. And really, this family is standing in for every family, every tourist who was in Thailand when the tsunami struck.
Hyde Park on Hudson. I also enjoyed this movie, but not quite so much as the others. I'd heard very mixed things about it and, well, it is a tad dull. Maybe because it came out so soon after The King's Speech, and because of Bill Murray and the trailers... we expect the movie to be mostly about Roosevelt and the King. And mostly a political film about how the US initially avoided, then eventually joined WWII.
But it's not really about that or about them. It's about Daisy, played by Laura Linney. And she's portrayed as a fairly dull and naive spinster. And I think because her character is dull, the film is dull. The hardest thing to believe for me was why FDR was attracted to her. I suspect that for him, it was less about her or sexual attraction, and more about his assuming she'd keep quiet, because she was his cousin and wouldn't hurt him or reveal any of his secrets, even if it all went bad...
There are a few scenes in the film which aren't in Daisy's POV. But the overall story is hers. In a nutshell, it's a coming of age story, but about a 30-something woman. (And not a docu-drama about the King's pre WWII visit to the USA, as the trailers would have you believe.)
And I call it a coming of age story, because Daisy has a very "teenager" character arc. (Powerful older man (quarterback) pays you some attention. But he has a wife (girlfriend). But he has what seems to be an open and not sexual relationship with his wife (we're just together because she's head cheerleader and it would look bad if we broke up) and you're so flattered and having sex for the first time in your life and he makes you feel important when you never thought you'd ever be important. You express your opinions. You meet interesting people. The King and Queen of England! (the football team and cheerleaders). Then you find out he's cheating on you as well as with you. You find out you're not so special. And... more would be spoilerish. Suffice it to say that the ending was kind of deflating and where it breaks off from where you'd expect a coming of age story might go. I guess I could/should admire them for not making it a more hollywood ending...
If it were a high school YA, coming of age, she would have realized her own self-worth, moved away and had a life. But it was another time.
No one knew Daisy's story or had proof of her relationship with FDR until she died in her late nineties and her journals and letters were discovered under her bed.
Hmm.. On second thought, maybe that is a bit of a high school ending.
So, is it factual? At best, the only truth it can possibly show is the "truth" that Daisy wrote in her letters and her impressions of events would be biased. But it was interesting and the performances were good. I especially enjoyed Bill Murray and Olivia Wilde as Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. I also liked the portrayal of King George VI, even though he was different than Colin Firth's version. I did, however, not like the Queen Elizabeth shown in this film. Who knows what she was really like, but I grew up loving the Queen Mother and much prefer the supportive and funny version of her that Helena Bonham Carter played in The King's Speech to the uptight and shrill version in this film.
Has anyone else seen any of these?
In the last couple of weeks, I have seen Lincoln, The Impossible and Hyde Park on Hudson, all based on true stories. And I'm dying to see Zero Dark Thirty, regardless of the waterboarding. (Even if it worked, and I'm not saying that I necessarily believe that it did. That doesn't make it right in my eyes... But that's not what this post is about.)
Lincoln was great. Daniel Day Lewis. Wow. I've never met Lincoln (I know, weird, right?) but I truly believed that Day Lewis was him. Who knows if the accent was right, but it was consistent and constant and not affected or false, and it made me see Lincoln and not DDL or any other character he's played. Who knows if Lincoln loved and doted on his youngest son that much, but the father son bond and the absolute love he had for his son was palpable and believable... Who knows exactly what he said to his wife when they were alone, but I found their relationship touching too. And the one with his older son... (And not to go all Anne Hathaway, but you've got to admire Sally Field for fighting so hard to get this part, even though she's much older than DDL and movies always tend to cast younger women with older men, not the other way around... Sally Field continues to fight and break barriers in Hollywood.)
A very interesting film. And I'd like to think that all the details about the politics and the compromises and who Tommy Lee Jones was sleeping with were accurate. But I don't know. And I'm not compelled to start researching to find out. I believed this movie. And learned a lot.
Then The Impossible. Wow. This is a really great film, if hard to watch in places. Naomi Watts does pain really well. And she suffers through a lot of pain... But this movie was a really amazing way to humanize and personalize what was the greatest natural disaster of our times. We all saw the photos of what happened in Thailand, but it was so far away and this film made it all so real and close to home...
In a few places near the end, I almost let my inner skeptic come out. I started thinking, how could they possibly know that this happened? How could they know he walked past there right then? But then at the climax of the story a few minutes later, I realized it just didn't matter how accurate some of these tiny details were. They were dramatic and heart breaking and created so much emotion and suspense and tension in a story that otherwise might lack tension... The audience goes into the movie knowing (or at least being 99% sure) about how it's going to end. But like Apollo 13 and other movies where you know the ending before it starts, the filmmakers and screenwriters used these details to create a lot of suspense.
But is it based on facts? Well, they show a photo of the real family at the end. Who are Spanish. I think? Definitely not British. But I forgive the filmmakers because, um, Ewan McGreggor. I forgive any change to the facts that lets him be cast in a film. And really, this family is standing in for every family, every tourist who was in Thailand when the tsunami struck.
Hyde Park on Hudson. I also enjoyed this movie, but not quite so much as the others. I'd heard very mixed things about it and, well, it is a tad dull. Maybe because it came out so soon after The King's Speech, and because of Bill Murray and the trailers... we expect the movie to be mostly about Roosevelt and the King. And mostly a political film about how the US initially avoided, then eventually joined WWII.
But it's not really about that or about them. It's about Daisy, played by Laura Linney. And she's portrayed as a fairly dull and naive spinster. And I think because her character is dull, the film is dull. The hardest thing to believe for me was why FDR was attracted to her. I suspect that for him, it was less about her or sexual attraction, and more about his assuming she'd keep quiet, because she was his cousin and wouldn't hurt him or reveal any of his secrets, even if it all went bad...
There are a few scenes in the film which aren't in Daisy's POV. But the overall story is hers. In a nutshell, it's a coming of age story, but about a 30-something woman. (And not a docu-drama about the King's pre WWII visit to the USA, as the trailers would have you believe.)
And I call it a coming of age story, because Daisy has a very "teenager" character arc. (Powerful older man (quarterback) pays you some attention. But he has a wife (girlfriend). But he has what seems to be an open and not sexual relationship with his wife (we're just together because she's head cheerleader and it would look bad if we broke up) and you're so flattered and having sex for the first time in your life and he makes you feel important when you never thought you'd ever be important. You express your opinions. You meet interesting people. The King and Queen of England! (the football team and cheerleaders). Then you find out he's cheating on you as well as with you. You find out you're not so special. And... more would be spoilerish. Suffice it to say that the ending was kind of deflating and where it breaks off from where you'd expect a coming of age story might go. I guess I could/should admire them for not making it a more hollywood ending...
If it were a high school YA, coming of age, she would have realized her own self-worth, moved away and had a life. But it was another time.
No one knew Daisy's story or had proof of her relationship with FDR until she died in her late nineties and her journals and letters were discovered under her bed.
Hmm.. On second thought, maybe that is a bit of a high school ending.
So, is it factual? At best, the only truth it can possibly show is the "truth" that Daisy wrote in her letters and her impressions of events would be biased. But it was interesting and the performances were good. I especially enjoyed Bill Murray and Olivia Wilde as Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. I also liked the portrayal of King George VI, even though he was different than Colin Firth's version. I did, however, not like the Queen Elizabeth shown in this film. Who knows what she was really like, but I grew up loving the Queen Mother and much prefer the supportive and funny version of her that Helena Bonham Carter played in The King's Speech to the uptight and shrill version in this film.
Has anyone else seen any of these?
January 14, 2013
Downton Abbey vs. Hysteria: How important is accuracy to you?
I've fallen crazy in love with Downton Abbey. Love it. Love it. Love it. It has totally broken down the walls I had keeping me away from period pieces. I adore the costumes and the set and the actors and the dialogue (oh! the dialogue!). I also adore that sometimes as I"m watching I google things like the Battle of Somme or the Battle of Amiens or Spanish flu and it turns out that what they're showing is pretty darn representative.
My walls were so lowered by the fabulousness of Downton Abbey that I decided to watch Hysteria. It was really funny and a tiny bit salacious and I'm hoping that I, at some point, remember to yell out "tallyho!" at an opportune moment. When I looked it up to see how accurate it was, however, I was sorely disappointed. Bits and pieces of it are accurate. Granville invented the vibrator, but not for the purpose that we all think of it being for. "Vulvar massage" was a treatment for hysteria. I don't think Granville ever did it or worked with a Dr. Dalrymple who probably didn't even have two daughters.
The movie was still funny and kind of cute, but it's ruined for me now because it's all made up. Downton Abbey is all made up, but I still love it. I know the difference is that one purports to show actual events and that the other is a story set in another time. My sister, on the other hand, couldn't have cared less about the lack of historical (or hysterical) accuracy in the Hysteria movie. It made her laugh. The story was cute and it didn't bother her one bit that it wasn't the ACTUAL story.
So how about you? How accurate do your need those historical stories to be? Is it enough that the clothing and the speech is right? Or do you need all of it to be correct?
My walls were so lowered by the fabulousness of Downton Abbey that I decided to watch Hysteria. It was really funny and a tiny bit salacious and I'm hoping that I, at some point, remember to yell out "tallyho!" at an opportune moment. When I looked it up to see how accurate it was, however, I was sorely disappointed. Bits and pieces of it are accurate. Granville invented the vibrator, but not for the purpose that we all think of it being for. "Vulvar massage" was a treatment for hysteria. I don't think Granville ever did it or worked with a Dr. Dalrymple who probably didn't even have two daughters.
The movie was still funny and kind of cute, but it's ruined for me now because it's all made up. Downton Abbey is all made up, but I still love it. I know the difference is that one purports to show actual events and that the other is a story set in another time. My sister, on the other hand, couldn't have cared less about the lack of historical (or hysterical) accuracy in the Hysteria movie. It made her laugh. The story was cute and it didn't bother her one bit that it wasn't the ACTUAL story.
So how about you? How accurate do your need those historical stories to be? Is it enough that the clothing and the speech is right? Or do you need all of it to be correct?
Golden Globes - Girl's Night OUT!
Or maybe I should take a line from Adele and say Mom's night out - because there were a lot of mom's (including Adele, who managed to upset that crappy song from Les Mis in a well-deserved win)taking home some serious hardware last night.
Jodi Foster looked amazing. And about half of her speech was amazing, the other half felt like I was listening in on a conversation already underway and I wasn't entirely sure what was going on. Was she coming out? Was she not coming out because she wanted her privacy? Was her soul-sister ex, there and this was some kind of farewell tour? Has she retired? I haven't loved all of Foster's choices, but she's undoubtedly a brave trailblazer. And her message to her her mom had me in tears.
Man, I want to love Anne Hathaway. I do. I want to hug her and stroke her cap of shiny hair and share a loaf of bread with her in the shade. And for half the night I loved her - that speech to Sally Field about type casting - YES! WOW! Smart and endearing and just plain COOL. Go Anne! And then stepping up to the mic for the Les Mis win to thank her manager? GAH! Forget it Anne, I'm keeping my loaf of bread and hair stroking for someone who will appreciate it - like Lena Dunham.
I have to say that watching Lena Dunham awkwardly walk to the stage in her high heels and fancy dress made me love her all the more. The way her hands shook and her voice cracked and she was just barely keeping her shit together...I loved it. I loved it for the very same reason I love her show - it's real and honest with all of the awkwardness that comes with something so unpolished.
And Tina and Amy - amazing. Were they the best hosts, ever? I don't know. But they were better than Gervais. Tina and Amy managed to be funny and smart and silly. They took shots at themselves, a couple at the audience, but it wasn't that caustic humor that we had for three years from Gervais. And for my money Amy's red dress - my favorite dress of the night. She's got great boobs.
The Golden Globes is losing it's joy for me. I liked it when the drunk winners got up there and said something shocking or sentimental. I liked it when people cried and made me cry. Now, every one is thinking their team. Who cares? I don't. Thank your mom, your grandmother, out your teacher. Talk about art and feeling like an outsider. (like Lena Dunham did. I should say I feel like this is a very realistic girl crush, I've got a chance.)
The Golden Globes needs a little more heart to go with last night's Girl Power. So? What did you think?
Jodi Foster looked amazing. And about half of her speech was amazing, the other half felt like I was listening in on a conversation already underway and I wasn't entirely sure what was going on. Was she coming out? Was she not coming out because she wanted her privacy? Was her soul-sister ex, there and this was some kind of farewell tour? Has she retired? I haven't loved all of Foster's choices, but she's undoubtedly a brave trailblazer. And her message to her her mom had me in tears.
Man, I want to love Anne Hathaway. I do. I want to hug her and stroke her cap of shiny hair and share a loaf of bread with her in the shade. And for half the night I loved her - that speech to Sally Field about type casting - YES! WOW! Smart and endearing and just plain COOL. Go Anne! And then stepping up to the mic for the Les Mis win to thank her manager? GAH! Forget it Anne, I'm keeping my loaf of bread and hair stroking for someone who will appreciate it - like Lena Dunham.
I have to say that watching Lena Dunham awkwardly walk to the stage in her high heels and fancy dress made me love her all the more. The way her hands shook and her voice cracked and she was just barely keeping her shit together...I loved it. I loved it for the very same reason I love her show - it's real and honest with all of the awkwardness that comes with something so unpolished.
And Tina and Amy - amazing. Were they the best hosts, ever? I don't know. But they were better than Gervais. Tina and Amy managed to be funny and smart and silly. They took shots at themselves, a couple at the audience, but it wasn't that caustic humor that we had for three years from Gervais. And for my money Amy's red dress - my favorite dress of the night. She's got great boobs.
The Golden Globes is losing it's joy for me. I liked it when the drunk winners got up there and said something shocking or sentimental. I liked it when people cried and made me cry. Now, every one is thinking their team. Who cares? I don't. Thank your mom, your grandmother, out your teacher. Talk about art and feeling like an outsider. (like Lena Dunham did. I should say I feel like this is a very realistic girl crush, I've got a chance.)
The Golden Globes needs a little more heart to go with last night's Girl Power. So? What did you think?
January 11, 2013
New Adult
It's a term I've heard a lot over the past six months and to be honest, didn't really understand what it is until recently and I'm still not entirely sure I fully get it. (Reading one would help, but I would love a recommendation before I step into new adult)
New Adult bridges the gap between YA and Adult, where the protagonist is in her early twenties, and experiencing her first serious, mature love, and heartbreak. It's YA contemporary taken out of high school and into college, or experiences such as a summer trip through Europe.
A lot of the ones I've seen have been self-published, but they seem to be doing really well. At first I didn't understand, it's basically romance. The average age of the historical romance heroine is probably close to the same age, but contemporary romance has an older heroine, most are in their late twenties and early thirties, and at a completely different life stage.
And these readers must be hungry to read about heroines their own age, or a little older, stepping into an experience that is on the horizon for the reader.
Part of my reluctance to start reading New Adult is my love of YA is in the big, adventurous stories, Hunger Games, Divergence, Scorpio Races, where the stakes are huge and stories are fast paced and exciting and New Adult seems to be on the other scale, where the stories are intimate and the stakes are internal.
So any recommendations out there? Anyone else eager to start reading New Adult, or do we think it's a brief trend, sort of like the younger sister to Chick Lit?
New Adult bridges the gap between YA and Adult, where the protagonist is in her early twenties, and experiencing her first serious, mature love, and heartbreak. It's YA contemporary taken out of high school and into college, or experiences such as a summer trip through Europe.
A lot of the ones I've seen have been self-published, but they seem to be doing really well. At first I didn't understand, it's basically romance. The average age of the historical romance heroine is probably close to the same age, but contemporary romance has an older heroine, most are in their late twenties and early thirties, and at a completely different life stage.
And these readers must be hungry to read about heroines their own age, or a little older, stepping into an experience that is on the horizon for the reader.
Part of my reluctance to start reading New Adult is my love of YA is in the big, adventurous stories, Hunger Games, Divergence, Scorpio Races, where the stakes are huge and stories are fast paced and exciting and New Adult seems to be on the other scale, where the stories are intimate and the stakes are internal.
So any recommendations out there? Anyone else eager to start reading New Adult, or do we think it's a brief trend, sort of like the younger sister to Chick Lit?
