Molly O'Keefe's Blog, page 64

It's Oscar Weekend

I don't watch football, basketball, hockey or anything else sportswise, so the closest I come to a superbowl event is the Oscars. I watch, junk food at the ready, wine poured, and care about what people wear, wince at the bad speeches and pre-guess all the major categories.

And so, before the event, I'm going on record as to what I think will win. It's not the most educated guess, as I still haven't seen True Grit, or The Social Network, but when has not knowing something stopped me from having an opinion.

So here goes.

Best Picture - I'm going with the King's Speech here. It has a lot of awards going into this, and based on previous history, specifically, Forrest Gump winning over Pulp fiction, it's more likely to win.

Best director - I'm going with David Fincher here. He's overdue for some serious recognition. I'm a huge fan of Seven, and Fight Club, and to be honest, I loved King's Speech, but I think it was successful largely due to the acting and screenplay.

Best Actor - Colin Firth. No explanation required.

Best Actress - Natalie Portman seems like the best bet to win. I have a longstanding affection for Annette Benning, and she was amazing in The Kids are Alright, but Portman was spectacular in Black Swan, completely convincing.

Best supporting Actor - Christian Bale - doing what he does best, completely disappearing into a role. But a part of me wants Geoffrey Rush to win, for the small moments in King's Speech, where he expressed so much with just the look in his eyes.

Best Supporting Actress - Hailee Stanfield for True Grit - although this is really close with Melissa Leo for The Fighter.

Best Adapted screenplay - The Social network.

Best original screenplay - the King's Speech

Best animated film - Toy Story 3

I know I've missed some important categories, but these cover most of the awards.
Any one out there have their own Oscar predictions? Do you want

The Royals... A love story?

I'm not going to lie – I love me some Royals. I don't follow too closely – but hook me up with a Royal Wedding and I am waking up at 4:00 am and watching all day coverage like it's the Superbowl.

I watched Diana get married. I watched her get buried. I watched when she introduced the world to Wills and I will watch him marry his commoner bride and make her a princess and the future Queen of England.

Now I know everything that went down with Charles and Diana. Completely tragic. He's in love with someone else. She can't handle it (and why should she) they divorce and she dies. No happy ending there.

But here is my claim… Kate Middleton must love Prince William a whole heck of a lot! I watched a TMC mini-documentary of their courtship, relationship and soon to be wedding and was floored by the depth of feeling this girl must feel for him.

Now some will say… "She's marrying a prince. She's going to be a queen. How great it is that?"

I would say – who wants it! Hear me out. Let's start with the fact –she's already rich. Her family has all the money they need. Materially while she'll be exposed to even bigger, better, more… it can't be all that different from her current lifestyle.

Then comes the baggage. Watching your relationship play out in tabloids. Being followed 24/7 by paparazzi. They called her "Waity Katey". They said she finally "landed" her prince. Like he was the prize to be one instead of her. I really bristled at that.

Now I don't know what's in this girl's head of course – but here is what I do know. She's rich. She's beautiful. As princess or queen –she'll have no real power. Yes, she can serve as a spokesperson for charities and causes she feels deeply about – but she could have done that as a citizen and again as a person of wealth still had a lot of impact.

Here is what she has to put up with. Constant scrutiny. Royal expectations. Rumors, gossip and innuendo which will be splattered across every paper in England. Her marriage, her happiness, William's happiness will constantly be questioned. When/if she becomes pregnant will be a national event!

But the worst, the all time worst, is that she will be held up near daily to one of those most Iconic Woman of All Time. I mean seriously… Diana walks into a room would you want to be the one to follow her?

Her wedding day will be watched by 2 billion people! Two billion people will tune in to watch her walk down the aisle, say her vows and will comment on her dress, hair, shoes everything. She will be there to essentially perform for the people. Because in reality it's their day. The people's day.

My day… with morning mimosas… because I want to see her a girl become a real live princess.

I watched this documentary and thought how in fiction - great romances have to overcome great obstacles. It makes the relationshiop that much stronger and more meaningful. To me the title of "Prince of Whales" is just about the greatest obstacle ever. Talk about raising the stakes.

I hope I'm right. I hope she really loves him. Because I think it would take all the love in the world for a modern marriage with this kind of pressure to work. If it does then it would be a truly happy ever after.

So good luck Kate Middleton – my new favorite heroine… Don't trip!

Trying on Agents

So, back in 2009, I wrote a post on another way to look at agent hunting that got a lot of traffic on this blog. It's still a post I'm pretty proud of and with some editing, might try to turn it into a tongue and cheek article for some bigger writing sites or magazines...

But something I've been keeping largely out of the public eye is that last summer I decided I wanted a new agent. It's a long story, but I decided to make the change at a time when everything was in serious limbo for me. Very scary.

I'm not planning to tell my personal saga here... (Although I might at some time and it does have a happy ending.) What I wanted to make a brief comment on are the great tools that are out there now for agent hunting.

The last time I was on the hunt, the new thing was agentquery.com. You no longer had to buy those big books! And that site is still great. Also back then, there was a very new kid on the block, querytracker.net but it was one I was highly skeptical of. You want me to store the list of agents I'm planning to query in your database? And then whether or not they request and how quickly? Who are you? How can I trust you? No way....

But when I found myself wanting to research agents again now, I went back. And boy had it improved in the intervening four (five?) years. Awesome. Highly recommend it, and paying the small fee to have the "premium" service with no ads and some extra bells and whistles I found very helpful.

And using it I came up with yet another silly analogy about agent hunting: Agent hunting is like clothes shopping. Just as fun. Just as frustrating.

You browse through query tracker, a fabulous, well laid out boutique where everything looks so chic and fabulous. "Oh, I'll take one of those!" "Hey, I think I'll try that on for size." "Oh, that one would really bring out my eyes, I mean character arc."

And then, just like trying on clothes (for me anyway) as soon as you get into the change room, reality strikes. Most things don't fit. Or the store doesn't have your size and you don't even get to try your favorite on. And sometimes the ones that looked best on the hangar end up looking the worst once you've tried them on. It almost feels like some of the clothes hate you. It feels personal.

But when you find that perfect fit? Magic.

Happy to say I now have a new agent. Charlie Olsen of InkWell Management. And while I took very few choices with me into the change room, I think I found the right fit.

Sex and the Local Library

Last Thursday, I spoke to the Friends of the Woodland Library in Woodland, California. It was really nice to be asked and the lovely woman in charge of publicity managed to get the local papers to run about four different articles about me and my books. It's hard to beat publicity like that, especially with a new book coming out in a couple of weeks.

I asked if there was anything in particular they wanted me to speak about and the answer was that they wanted me to speak about romance. It was Valentine's week, after all, and I was a romance author. Great. Easy peasy, right?

Except nothing about these talks is easy peasy for me. My sister is a professor and I swear she can pull intelligent and witty lectures out of bodily orifices in about ten seconds flat. She often points out to me that she has been teaching at the University level for thirty years now, has put together a lot of lectures from which she can pull information and strcuture and simply has a lot of experience with it. I disagree. I think she hogged all the good lecture genes, leaving me with strangely stunted and mutated little things that can't create a linear speech.

So I set to work toiling over my talk. I kept coming back to sex. Why did there have to be so much sex in romance novels? Why has it gotten more explicit? What does it mean? Does it mean that our books are chick porn? How has the sex changed? What's it like to write those sex scenes?

Which is how I ended up standing in front of the Friends of the Woodland Library including, but not limited to, the incredibly adorable teacher of Life Stories at the senior center and my spin instructor from the gym and my cousin's husband's brother's wife, and giving an impassioned salute to sex in romance novels.

And you know what? I think they liked it. I had about twenty minutes of great questions after I was done and sold a pile of books. I don't think they even noticed the giant zit that had sprouted on my chin that morning.

Details

I am late, as usual, to the party that is American Idol this season. I just saw my first episode, the group week in Hollywood. And with the hysterics and bad drama and bad behaviour, there was my favourite moment of the entire episode.

Steven Tyler. Love him. What I love most, is that, he has this shaggy rock star hair, a seemingly genuine love for being a rock star and the adulation that comes with it, his hippy shirts that fit his personality perfectly and then, after a group would perform, and the judges had to look at pictures to decide who stayed and who left, he'd pull his reading glasses from his pocket and push them on the end of his nose to be able to see the pictures on the table in front of him and suddenly went from Rock Star God to endearing grandmother and I loved him more.

Such a great detail, provided to us by reality Tv. Aging rock star and his silver framed reading glasses.

Those are the details that some writers just produce as if by magic. Molly is one of those writers.

I, sadly, am not. I'm so busy worrying about plot turns and reversing expectations and how to ramp up the tension that I overlook the details that can reverse our expectation about a character and sum up in a sentence, a perfect character trait.

That Steven Tyler keeps his glasses hidden in his pocket until he absolutely needs them, and probably reluctantly, puts them on to see, is a brilliant detail, one I wish I'd come up with.

And now I'm hooked into American Idol, if just to watch Steven Tyler.

Instinct...

I was recently reading a blog which featured a post where an aspiring author posted the first page of her manuscript and opened it up for critique. Among the posters was an agent. It was amazing how many tiny things the agent found just within the first few paragraphs. Two issues in the first sentence!

Little details that when reading it seemed obvious, but I know as a writer I would never consciously think to check.

Last week Sinead was commenting on Eileen's post regarding what to reveal and what to hold back in her latest suspense novel and Sinead said you have to rely on your instinct. Excellent point.

Now – I'm not going to lie – I don't think I have great "life" instincts. In poker when my "instinct" tells me to go all in – I do and usually lose. I've gone with my "instincts" when dating… no good there.

Career decisions? Currently still pending.

But my writing instinct seems to be intact because with every point the agent brought up – I instantly went back to the first page of my submission and tried to see if I could find the same mistakes - I hadn't made them. (I'm sure I waited until the second page to commit all my errors.)

However it got me to thinking about how much I simply rely on this…"whatever" to write a book. I don't sit and analyze each sentence and break down how it works or doesn't. I just write. Hope it's okay. Fix what I can and move on.

All this time I've been relying on writer instinct I didn't know I had. It is sort of like realizing you have a super power. Something that makes you different from everybody else.

Now we as readers and writers know… instinct will only take you so far. You have to combine that with hard work and dedication, study of your craft, blah, blah, blah…

But still it was interesting to learn that imbedded in my brain somewhere must be some deep rooted writer's instinct which helps me get from page to page without making the most obvious errors.

The question is – Is it born in us? Or did we develop it through reading without knowing? Or can we develop it over time by just continuing to write and receive feedback?

Chasing Failure

Last week I went to see Paul Haggis being interviewed at the TIFF's new permanent location. I have to admit, it was pretty cool and he said a few things that made me nod my head and think, oh, I should do a DWT blog about that! But clearly I'm getting old, or I've been very distracted, or both, because I forgot most of them.

But one comment was during the Q&A. Someone asked about him about the importance of failures. Haggis had talked during the interview about a few TV shows he'd developed that he really loved and believed in that either never got picked up, or got canceled right out of the box, like EZ Streets. And he also talked about how he'd been shopping the scripts for both Crash and Million Dollar Baby for years before he managed to get the money together to produce them. 

And his answer to the person who asked (a young filmmaker) was: run hurtling toward failures. Pursue failures, because that's the only way to succeed.

I thought this was good and brave advice... because really, if we aren't doing this in some way, aren't we playing it safe?

I dunno. I suppose it's just another way to say, take risks, pursue your wildest dreams, do it the way you want to do it... but I think it is kind of freeing to think about chasing down failures. Hey, don't we writers actively pursue rejection and criticism in a way?

Is this too negative a way of thinking about this? I can't decide...

Welcome Susan Hatler!

Come on in, Susan! Welcome to Drunk Writer Talk. I don't even have to ask what your drink is since we go wayyyyy back, girl! Here's your salt. Here's your slice of lime and here, my dear, is your shot of Patron. Knock it on back! Remember that time in that bar in Monterey? I'm not entirely sure how we got back to Asilomar. I just know we did not drive and that there seem to be a lot of pictures of you wearing my poncho.
Okay! Now that that's out of the way, let's get down to talking about your anthology that came out just in time for Valentine's Day. Where did the idea for Set Up for Love come from?
It happened one evening at Taco Bell. Ah, the romance of it all.
Virna and I were sharing a delicious meal and chatting about my contemporary romance short story, My Last Blind Date. It's one of several short stories I'll be publishing in Fall 2011 in an anthology titled Better Date Than Never.
After consuming dependably yummy food in a wrapper, we chatted about a couple of contemporary romance manuscripts we'd started and didn't want to go to waste. Hmmm. We realized that if we combined our stories, they'd make a great anthology, lengthy enough for both an e-book and a print version. Then, we called our fabulous author friend, Delilah Sloan. Guess what? Delilah had a contemporary romance manuscript she'd started, as well. Shocker.
Between the three of us, we brainstormed Set Up For Love, an anthology about finding Mr. Right, with a little help from friends.
Three stories. Three authors. Three kinds of romance. Sweet. Sassy. Sexy. Our thought was: Women are complicated, but reading doesn't have to be. Let's create an anthology of contemporary romances to suit a reader's every mood.
Deadline? Valentine's Day. And, since My Last Blind Date is about a girl who's dateless on Valentine's Day, we added that as a bonus for our Valentine's Day release. Fun!
It's amazing what can happen when writers sit down to have a burrito.
I just adore the trailer of My Last Blind Date. Check it out here:



So . . . you're the sweet one of the trio. Was that a deliberate choice or does it simply reflect your natural voice?
It's just the way I write. Well, thus far. Watch some hot and sexy romance novel come out of me next. It's funny because I went to a writing retreat last weekend and amazing New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lori Wilde was one of the speakers. She loved the beginning of my novella, The Boyfriend Bylaws, and thought it'd be perfect for the Harlequin Blaze line. I was walking on air with a smile stretched across my face when Virna reminded me, "Um, you don't have any sex in your story." Oh, yeah…forgot about that small factor.
It sounds like your novella and your short story have as much to do with female friendship as they do with finding true love. Was it hard to strike that balance in a short format?
Yes and yes.
In addition to finding love, all of our stories have to do with the dynamics of female friendships—when to stand by quietly as your friend dates the wrong guys….and when to step in. It became the theme of our book: Friends Don't Let Friends Date Badly.
Hard striking a balance with the short format? Um, does Drunk Writer Talk rock?
Rock. Paper. Scissors. We talk it all, sugar.
So, yes. I had to slash and cut. Sub-plots were deleted, as well as entire scenes. Painful-painful-painful! Yet I did what I had to do for the good of the story.
Creating this anthology with Virna DePaul and Delilah Sloan was a lot of hard work, but an amazing ride. I think readers will relate to how it feels when your friends get their hearts broken. Sometimes, you just need to step in and set them up with love!
Thanks for having me here and happy belated Valentine's Day to all.
Thank YOU so much for stopping by. So Stalkers, do you want to win a copy of Set Up for Love? Leave a comment. Ask Susan a question. Let us know you're out there and your name will be entered for a chance to win a copy of this totally fun, totally sassy, totally sexy book!

HIS WIFE FOR ONE NIGHT - OUT NOW

Hey - Happy Valentine's Day for those of you out there who go for this holiday. I do. I really do. That arguement that people make about resenting being told by Hallmark when they have to give or get flowers - those people must give or get flowers a whole lot more than I do. I need someone to tell my husband to pick up a bouquet. Sadly, though, and it's terrible I admit it - I have totally slacked off on giving Adam anything. I used to send him these little care packages with treats and cards and mix CD's. Oh, those were the days. Now...nothing. Poor guy.

So, my Valentine's to you, our Drunk Writer Stalkers, is a couple of free books. Comment anytime this week and I'll pick two winners to get HIS WIFE FOR ONE NIGHT. As a sidenote - I love this book. I'm not sure if I love it because it's based loosely on my rad cousin, or because the writing God's smiled on me and this book just flew from my fingers, or beacuse I managed to get sex in early. Don't know. But other people are loving it too.

So - riddle me this: Do you love Valentine's Day? Or hate it. And bonus points if you can give me some ideas for my husband!!!

It's a stakes thing

I've have a fantastic reading month. I've read some truly great books, the angel series by Nalini Singh, the first book is pretty amazing stuff, the Maze Runner had me obsessed with getting to the end for days, and then I picked up another eagerly anticipated YA book. I'm going to try and not name names, or book titles.

I'd heard nothing but positive buzz on this book, and the cover is amazing, the description of it on the back cover sounds fascinating. The first chapter is riveting and the author does an incredible job of worldbuilding. It's postapocalyptic, but a different take than I've read. So all good. Except then the book grinds to a halt.

There is a nice subtle air of menace underlying each of the scenes, but I feel like I'm forcing myself to read on. The writing is lovely, each scene does progress the plot, and really, I can't tell what is about to happen, but I'm not invested in the story, because I truly do not know what is at stake. The reader does not know the consequences for breaking the rules, we don't know what will happen if the heroine veers from the path chosen from her, and really, right now, I don't care all that much.

Maybe because she doesn't care much either. Half way through the book, there is no real sense that she wants a change in her life, and would be perfectly happy if things continued as they'd been set out for her at the beginning of the book.

So how am I as the reader supposed to care if she does or doesn't. Not every book needs a cackling villian in the background, rubbing his hands together at the thought of breaking the heroine's neck, but there has to be tension regarding the heroine's decisions, a real sense that if she makes the wrong decision there will be hell to pay, either emotionally or physically, or both.

And it doesn't have to be life threatening either. One book I absolutely love is Ain't She Sweet. The heroine has a lot to lose in this book, mostly her dignity and self-respect and there are scenes where she does hit rock bottom, and we feel every moment of her pain. It's brilliantly done.

I need to read that book again, but first I need to pick up the book following the Maze Runner, called The Scorch Trials. Anyone read them?