Molly Ringle's Blog, page 36

Romance of the Buffyverse

In early honor of Valentine's Day, let's compile some romantic quotations from the Buffyverse. These can be funny or sincere.

Couple examples of the funny variety:

"I'm going to find her, wherever she is, tie her up, and torture her till she likes me again." - Spike

Willow (about Buffy): "Guess she's out with Riley. You know what it's like with a spanking new boyfriend."
Anya (re. Xander): "Yes, we've enjoyed spanking."

And at least this one for the sincere:

"I know you'll never love me. I know tha...

Best movies of 2009

As with the books list, these are of course the best films I saw in 2009, not ones made in 2009, necessarily. There are 13, because I couldn't narrow it down to 10. If I cut one, why leave another that's basically just as good? And so on. Thus, the list...

In the "catching up with Pixar" category: Ratatouille, Wall-E, and Up. All brought the exuberant humor and quirkiness I've come to love from Pixar, with enough gentleness and heart to keep the 3-year-old entertained as well. Thanks to Up he'...

Funny irony

From Irony At Its Best, a photo collection that made me LOL several times. The above two are possibly my favorites.

Another Steve quote

Steve explains to me that some exciting moment has happened in college football. A quarterback has gotten injured early in the game, and an 18-year-old freshman gets to fill in, and is doing a brilliant job. Very thrilling.

Me: Oh. Sort of like in theater, when the lead can't go on, and the understudy gets to fill in, and ends up dazzling the audience.

Steve: (disdainful pause) You just used a theater metaphor to describe sports. You're supposed to use sports metaphors to describe everything el...

Best books of 2009

Following a long-standing tradition of mine, I've compiled the best books I read in the past year. I've chosen ten novels, and have also added four noteworthies from the non-fiction shelf.

Fiction, in the order in which I read them:

No Name, Wilkie Collins. Collins writes clear, page-turning prose for a Victorian, and though this one is nowhere near as famous as his The Woman in White or The Moonstone, I found it quite compelling. It's the story of a young woman's mission to get revenge upon t...

Hey LJers...

If you're a Paid or Permanent user, you can send up to 10 Basic or Plus users a $10 coupon to upgrade to a one year paid account.

Recipients can upgrade for $9.95 (instead of $19.95) for one year by enrolling in our automatic payment plan or make a manual payment of $15 (instead of $25). Please note that these coupons are not transferable and cannot be used to renew existing paid accounts. Recipients must specifically decline the Holiday coupon in order for it to be credited back to the...

Book cover and goofy memo

I got the cover art for my upcoming novel Summer Term:



Whew, it's not of the gleaming-torsos/"gimme back my shirt" variety! And it does look like a chick-flick DVD cover, so that conveys the mood pretty accurately. For what it's worth, I did sort of picture Robert Pattinson and Lauren Ambrose as the leads...




...but I understand how they weren't available to be cover models.

(Yes, it does annoy me that I find RPattz attractive and likable even though the Twilight series and fandom annoys me furt...

Book giveaway!

Free drawing time! This Yuletide season I will be giving away a print copy of The Ghost Downstairs to not one but two lucky winners. To enter, just comment upon this post, and I'll have the random number generator pick two of you on Sunday. Non-LJers, be sure you leave me some way of contacting you in the comment.

Good luck!

Legal question: child custody with a few twists

I come before you once again with a fictional scenario for which I'd like some factual information. We're in the legal realm this time. I know only a little law (for instance, I'm pretty sure it's illegal to run someone over with your car without giving them your insurance information beforehand), so feel free to use small words in your answer.

Scenario: a woman is pregnant and does not want to keep the child herself. She has agreed to let the father, her ex-boyfriend, take the baby. For what ...

The roller coaster of publishing

I was discussing writing disappointments on an email list, and wanted to repeat my part of the conversation here. So, for anyone who's interested, here's a quick rundown of some of my bigger writing-world letdowns. This does not even count the hundreds of rejection letters I've collected--some of which arrived a year or more after my query.

- Circa 1999, a small publisher offered me a contract on a novel. Hurrah! I mentioned that offer to an agent, who quickly signed me on. Double hurrah! She...