Ally Blake's Blog, page 21

my favourite...current TV shows

Community.  Paint Ball episode = genius.  Annie's Glee song = hilarious.  Smart, sharp, lough out loud fabulousness.

Castle.  Nathan Fillion - tick!  Charming, warm show. And just love that the guy is surrounded by women. 
ModernFamily.  Userfriendly with an edge.
30Rock.  Don't dare blinkor you'll surely miss something!
House.  This show just keeps onsurprising!  And it helps that I have abit of a crush on our damaged hero I do ;).  Just heard this is the last season.  *sniff*
The Good Wife.  The end to last season was totally...phwoar!
Outnumbered.  British family sit-com.  So painfully close to home at times ;).
Liking Once Upon a Time and New Girl too.  Easy watching.

i'm reading...janet evanovich

EXPLOSIVE EIGHTEEN
 

I've read 'em all, all the way from One For the Money - are you hanging for the film as much as I am??? -  to this, the eigtheenth installment in the Stephanie Plum, Morelli, Ranger triangle.  Because, come on, the books are ridiculously fun, the ever-expanding cast of characters utterly crazy, and the tone an absolute delight, but it's the "who the heck will she end up with?' that keeps you coming back and back and back.
It's one of those series you can glom like crazy, but after a while its great to take a break.  I've read the alst three in quick succession, and I tell ya, I loved this one.  It felt fresh.  Sharp.  The Ranger-Morelli thing had a bit more teeth.
Zany, quick, and and unexpectedly gritty EXPLOSIVE EIGHTEEN by Janet Evanovich is classic Plum novel with a touch of edge that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Now bring on the movie!!!
More about the author here.  Buy the book here.  Start with One For the Money here. 
Next I'm reading...Flirting With Italian by Liz Fielding.  What are youreading?  Which book MUST I read thisyear?  Find the other books I've enjoyed in my "I'm reading..." series this year here!  Or join me at Goodreads.

ebook of the month...getting down to business

Firstpublished in April 2007Boardroom Hotshots collection eBook outnow!

GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS ::  ebook

The book:
   Until this point I'd written only for Harlequin Romance.  And the idea of writing anything even vaguely hotter never occurred to me.  I love the Romance line and the kinds of books that leave you feel warm and fuzzy have been my favourites since I first discovered romance novels.  

Then one day I had this idea...  I had a gap between deadlines.  A new editor.  And I thought, what the heck?  I wrote the first 25000 words in a week.  A week!  As a mum of three kids aged 4 and under that kind of productivity makes me want to flick my former self behind the ear ;).


Abbey's grandmother is a famous almost militant feminist.  Flynn is the playboy to end all playboys.  This book is about when happens when they get into bed together...for the sake of a business opportunity.  And then some ;). 

I had suuuch fun writing GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS.  Hope you have as much fun reading it!
  The excerpt: 'So what happened today in the celebrated life and times of FlynnGranger?'
Flynn threw a handful of mixed nuts into his mouth andsat back in his favourite wing chair of his favourite club in town, and smiledas his best mate George chatted away.
'Break the hearts of any lingerie models?  Buy a golf course?  Lose a million dollars on roulette?  What?'
'Sorry to disappoint, buddy,' Flynn said, slapping hisoldest friend on the back.  'Today wasall back to regular business.'
And regular business bored the hell out of him.  Always had. As did people who played it safe, and did what was expected ofthem.  The ironic thing was, his life hadhit a point where he was now almost expected to do the unexpected.  And it was driving him mad.
He'd made enough money.  He'd travelled everywhere.  He'd partiedlike it was 1999.  He'd dated many of theworld's most beautiful women, only to find that it no longer gave him anywherenear the satisfaction it had the first time he'd done it all.  And now he feared that there were nomountains left to climb.
He ran a finger back and forth across his mouth.  Something he'd never done was run a magazine.
Flynn smiled, the motion coming from deep down insideof him.  'Well, there was this one womanI met with this morning.'
George leant forward in his chair, his eyes glinting.  'Go on.'
Flynn laughed. George was such a wannabe cad, a sweet guy with a heart of gold whocouldn't play the part Flynn had made famous even if he wanted to.
George had fallen in love at first sight a thousandtimes and was always disappointed when the women he dated weren't the flawless princesseshe built them up to be.  Flynn was morerealistic – when he dated he fully expected the flush to fade.
He'd never even come close to falling in love, atfirst sight or twenty-first.  Having afather with all the warmth of a polar bear on a no red meat diet, and a motherwho covered up her disappointment in her choice of husband with too much sherryhad made him that way.  He knew it.  He lived with it.  And he found plenty of ways to have aperfectly nice love life despite it.
So he came out of relationships feeling vindicated,George came out feeling battered.  But ifGeorge knew that Flynn had spent many nights sitting in a chair in hispenthouse bedroom looking out over the magnificent city view, waiting for ashooting star drop off a load of inspiration on its way across the sky, hedidn't show it.
'Blonde she was,' Flynn said, waggling his eyebrows athis intrigued friend.  'A power pack whobarely came up to my chin.  Eyes thecolour of a clear summer sky.  And a pairof legs that went all the way to the floor.'     Re-released as part of the Boardroom Hot-shots collection.
Paperback.  Buy the eBook.  Buy from iTunes.  More about the book

my favourite...hero mixed tape

Been having lots of fun making my current hero-in-waiting a mixed tape of all the songs
that make me imagine what it might feel like when my heroine spots him across a crowded nightclub dance floor.  And the songs he might hear booming inside his head when he spots her.  Imagine these thumping through your headphones while you write!

Need You Tonight - INXSSexyback - Justin TimberlakeAmerican Woman - Lenny KravitzDirrty - Christina Aguilera
Here's a little Justin just to get ya in the mood!

I'm reading... Linda Howard

MR PERFECT

After hearing the name Linda Howard dropped all over the place as a favourite of many a romance author - including some of those very enar and dear to me, one of whom is even great friends with her! - I knew I had to dive in, pick one and give her a go.

Was it worth it?  Was it ever!

I adored Mr Perfect to bits.  With a big plot it took a few pages for me to get the rhythm, but once the hero and heroine - new neighbours who snipe at each other for the first chapter or two - finally talk to one another BOOM!  KAPOW!  The sparks are fantabulous!  This was one of those relationships I read with a tinge happy of green, the wicked delight that comes from reading characters you love so much you wish you'd written them yourself.

I've read another of hers since - After the Night - which is veeeerrrrry different in tone and subject matter.  So if one's not your cup of tea, the other well might be.  Me, I enjoyed them both.


MR PERFECT by Linda Howard is fun, feisty, sexy, unexpected, and a fabulous romp of a read.
More about the author here.  Buy the book here.  Buy After the Night here.
Next I'm reading... Flirting With Italian by Liz Fielding.  What are youreading?  Which book MUST I read thisyear?

ebook of the month...the friends

BILLIONAIRE ON HER DOORSTEP ::  ebook First published June 2007
eBook out now!
The friends:
   I'd always been keen on the idea of writing a book set in one place with only the hero and heroine on the page.  And that's exactly what I intended to do when setting out to write this book.  I mean big house, reclusive painter. No visitors allowed - bar one, of course ;).
 


Well, that was until my fabulous editor got a look at the first few chapters.  She loved it, but...  Couldn't the heroine , Maggie, have some friends?  Some foils off which to bounce?  Women who know her?  Love her?  Soften her?


You know what?  She was right!  I adore the context and richness that secondary characters add to a novel.  In a short novel it can be a tricky ask, having friends, family and workmates on the page without taking focus away from the romance.  But its kind of what I do.  Since book one.  I can't seem to help myself.  So it's what I did here too!
 


So here are The Wednesday Girls...
 

The excerpt: Late the next morning, a bustle of noiseat Maggie's front door heralded the arrival of Freya, Sandra and Ashleigh, theWednesday girls.  Annoyed at the racket, Smileyplodded through the house and out the back door.
Sandra, the youngest of the gang, lumberedin first, her dark wavy hair in pigtails, her pretty blue eyes rimmed inlashings of rebellious black kohl and her heavy combat boots clumping loudly onthe wooden floor.
'Mornin' Mags, sorry we're late.  Blame Freya,' she called out, dumping herblack leather beanbag in the middle of the floor.
Freya, a single mum with twin girls in thefirst grade whirled in next, short red hair scruffy, pale cheeks pink, claystains on her freckled arms, carrying a huge tartan picnic blanket and a coolerfilled with gourmet foods.
'Read the thing or don't read the thing,'Freya shouted over her shoulder.  'Idon't care.  You're always going on aboutmale domination in the creation of modern religion and this book says much the same.'
Freya waved a dog-eared copy of The Da Vinci Code over her shoulder likea waggling finger at the fourth musketeer, Ashleigh, Maggie's old art teacher,the patron of the group, and the eldest at somewhere over fifty years old.  Well over, Maggie guessed, though with hershort, insanely curly ash-blonde hair, and layers of autumnal coloured clothes,she had always seemed kind of ageless.
Ashleigh smiled serenely at Maggie and carriedan Edwardian dining chair in her elegant wake, before her pale eyes swayed tothe painting over her shoulder.  Her gazewandered carefully over the piece, then down to the floor where the dozen othermembers of the lukewarm Blue Smudge Series rested haphazardly against oneanother.
Ashleigh hooked a long thin hand through Maggie'selbow.  'This new one's coming alongnicely, don't you think?'
Maggie didn't think any such thing.  'Wine for everyone?' she called out ratherthan saying so.
'God yes,' Freya gasped, heading into thekitchen.
'Make mine a double,' Sandra said,shuffling a French cigarette from a box as she stared at Maggie's painting,with her forehead creased into a kind of determined concentration only theyoung can achieve without leaving a mark.
'So what's it all about?' Sandra asked, herhand hovering an inch from the canvas as though it could communicate better toher that way.
'Beats me,' Maggie admitted. 
  

Buy the eBook.  Buy for Kindle.  Buy from iTunes.  More about the book. 

my favourite...apps

Got a brand new smart phone for Xmas - a Sony Experia Arc.  My god is it lovely!  All smooth and dark and delicious.   Like a good romantic hero really ;).   I love being able to email and blog and tweet but there's just a whole world of time wasting fun out there to be had!  Apps, backgrounds, widgets.  Boy do I love the widgets.
   Here are my current faves:  IMDB - the Internet Movie Database website is the most perfect treasure trove for movie buffs.  The relief of seeing some random actor in a movie and being able to track down what you've seen him in before has changed my life!  As for the phone app - brilliant!  Blissfully easy access to movie trailers, and session times anywhere in the world.  Love love love it.
GoodReads - easy way to keep quick track of your books and the books your friends are reading.  
Piano Keyboard - plug in some headphones and my eldest makes up and records her own song.  Curly girl is 4 mind you so they sound like a wall of sound.  But its still lovely to watch - and not hear ;).
   Angry Birds - need I say more ;) ? Even while it is a love hate relationship for absolute sure, the thing is crazy addictive! 
  WeatherZone - even while I know it's never right, and I do have windows to look out of to check for myself, I have this obsession with checking it ten times a day!
   Days Until - great for counting down the days til Kinder starts as Curly Girl asks EVERY DAY if she's going yet.
ColorNote - awesome for shopping lists and keeping track of present ideas and presents bought.  Wasa lifesaver over Christmas.
Which Android apps MUST I get for my phone? More of my favourites here.

I'm reading... Jennifer Crusie

MAYBE THIS TIME
Jenny Crusie's books are an auto-buy for me.  Charlie All Night was inspired and Welcome to Temptation is on my top five books EVER.

In fits and spurts - which is the only way I get to read nowadays (picture three toddlers climbing over me at any given moment of the day) it took me a few pages to get back into the rhythm every time I picked it up, but the times I was able to read in a good solid chunk it just flew!

And for writers with a few hours to spare, her website and blog - Argh Ink - are magic caves of delight!  Her interest in the romance genre and willingness to share the insights - witty, smart, considered and pro-romance all the way are second to none.

Quirky and unexpectedly gritty MAYBE THIS TIME by Jennifer Crusie is a roller coaster read.
More about the author here.  Buy the book here.  Grab Charlie All Night here.  And Welcome to Temptation here.
Next I'm reading... Mr Perfect by Linda Howard.  What are youreading?  Which book MUST I read thisyear?

ebook of the month... inspiration

[image error] First published June 2007
eBook out now! BILLIONAIRE ON HER DOORSTEP ::  ebook

Inspiration: Trish Wylie and I had an infamous - good-natured - online spat about Nathan Fillion while I was writing this book.  I inadvertently revealed her plans to marry him, and she set to barring me from using any of her favourite bits of him as inspiration for this story.  It was war ;). And you wouldn't believe the thousands who weighed in at the time!  But take into account the rugged handsomeness, the glint in the eye, the big strong manliness of the guy - how could I not be inspired while writing my Tom?

Check out Trish's blog - Writing and Other Forms of Insanity - and search for "Nathan Fillion Ally Blake" - has a nice ring dontcha think? - to see the war for yourself ;).
 
My Maggie was just as easy.  The delicacy, vulnerability,  spare beauty of Keira Knightley in this picture was heaven sent.

The excerpt: 'Paint that!' Sandra gasped from theveranda.  Through the window Maggie saw herpointing downwards with her smouldering cigarette.  And then the sound of a chainsaw cut throughthe silence.
'Oh shoot...'  Before Maggie could think of an excuse tostop them, the other two women sorted out their wine glasses and headedoutside.  She had no choice but tofollow.
'This is new,' Ashleigh rumbled under herbreath.
Below Tom stood with his legs shoulder widthapart as he wielded his chainsaw.  Jeanshugged lean hips.  His dark hair wasspiky and a mess.  And a sheen of sweatglowed along his tanned muscular arms.
Sandra sighed eloquently beside her, andMaggie had to admit, even though she had been steadfastly paying no heed to thefact for days, he did make for quite the glorious picture.
'I know about him,' Freya said her voiceheavy with accusation.  'That's TomCampbell.  What's he doing here?'
Maggie leant away from the rail and movedback inside, the last thing she wanted was to be discovered ogling.  The others followed after a time.  Except one.
'Sandra,' Ashleigh called out, clickingher fingers.
Sandra took a drag on her cigarette, putit out in a potted fern, took one last lingering look at Tom, then clumped backin. Buy the eBook.  Buy for Kindle.  Buy from iTunes.  More about the book.

my favourite...romantic moments on tv...the west wing

Season Two, Episode Eighteen: 17 people
Josh and Donna.  'Nuff said.



What's your favourite romantic TV moment?