Merrie Destefano's Blog, page 13

The long day that wasn't

Have you ever spent all day working on something, only to finally realize that it really wasn't working? Not even a tiny bit? That was me and my imaginary newsletter today. I spent the entire day working on a layout and putting together a subscriber's list. Now, at the end of the day, after e-mailing myself a sample of said newsletter, I've come to the conclusion that I could have had this done as a blog post in about half an hour. As a newsletter, it took all day and still isn't quite right.

Me thinks my grand plans for communicating with the ever-expanding cyber universe via e-mail is not what I hoped.

But I can still blog, right? I mean, we always have Paris. (Weird, incongruent reference to an old movie there.)

Anyway, there are some cool things going on online right now that I haven't mentioned here, on my own blog. Because I forgot. Or maybe because I was working on my third novel. Or maybe because I was playing around with that blasted newsletter.

So, forgetting about those things that are behind me and are named N - - - - - - - - R, here are some cool happenings on the Net...

I wrote two other blog posts. On other blogs. And each one of them is giving away one of my books. I know. I can't believe I didn't mention it either.

Here they are:

Right now I have a VERY REVEALING post over at the Supernatural Underground. You can check that one out HERE.

And I wrote a blog-post-article thingie about Organic World Building over at Speculative Faith. What's organic world building, you ask? Good question. The answer to that can be found HERE.

So, I hope your day was MUCH more productive than mine. But if not, and you feel like sharing the details--from the moment the dog ran out the door without his leash to the moment that you remembered that you have NO hot water but you still need to take a shower--feel free to tell me ALL about it. That's what the comments section is for.

And right now, I'm going to do my best to step away from the newsletter. Before one of us gets hurt.

The King's Speech and a Collin Firth fan side note

Wow.

Okay, that was my one-word review of the movie, The King's Speech. I've always loved historical dramas and biographies of historic figures, but this one was phenomenal. Such an incredible story of love (between King George and his wife, between George and his children, between Lionel and his wife and his children), of friendship (between George and Lionel), and perseverance over disabilities.



I think we, as commoners, will never truly know what it would be like to grow up in a royal family, but this movie gives you an inside look--and it's one that might surprise you. I have a feeling that everyone will fall in love with Colin Firth's character by the end of the movie. In fact, during the showing I attended, the audience clapped when the movie was over. In a way, the film was a little bit like Rudy, where everyone was rooting for the main character to succeed.

I think most of us can identify with the underdog, in some way. And if that underdog can manage to defeat his own inner demons, then go on to fight against one of the greatest monsters of all time (in this case, Hitler), well, that is the stuff of legends.

On a quirky side note: Did anybody out there recognize the actress who played Lionel's wife?

Jennifer Ehle played Myrtle Logue in this film. But she also played Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice, opposite Colin Firth, as Mr. Darcy.

Here's my favorite scene from that 1995 film, the one where Colin Firth first captured my heart. The dance scene:

Interview & Book Giveaway

I just finished a cool interview with Kathy Harris over at Divine Detour, where some of the things we discuss include, "Who was the inspiration for Omega, the dog in Afterlife?" and "Did I know that I wanted to be a writer as child?" and "What's my next writing project?"

I had a lot of fun chatting with her. On top of being a fantastic Blog Master and Incredible Interviewer, she also happens to be a fellow German shepherd lover. So, of course, she scored big points with me. Anyone who loves animals get lots of points from me.

So, anyway, you should stop by her blog and say hi. We're giving away a signed copy of Afterlife, but the book contest only runs through December 30.

Joseph, We need to talk, or, The digital tale of the Nativity

Pardon my dust (cough cough)

I've thought about it for a long time and it looks like I'm finally ready to break up with WordPress. We never were very good friends anyway. I don't know about you, but every time I wanted to try something new--like adding a picture somewhere on my site or adding a YouTube video of MY OWN book trailer (sorry for the caps there, didn't mean to shout)--I would spend hours trying to figure it out. Then in the end, WordPress would always win. I was never able to put a book trailer on my website, even with an honest to goodness, real website designer helping me.

So, I'm back with my old love, Blogger.

Blogger and I have been tight for years. He NEVER gives me any lip when I want to add another sidebar or photo or HTML.

But, unfortunately, this all means that I'm in the process of abandoning my current website here, creating a new website here and redesigning my blog (you know, the one you're looking at right now) and, at the same time, I'm creating a new site to feature my debut novel, AFTERLIFE, here.

So, I apologize for all the cyber dust. There are a lot of links that don't work yet. And there are some pages without text. And there are even some pages with Greek text (non-sensical words like xljcouren lekjoruen rlj eoruen erlel).

In the near future, everything will be shiny and sparkly and all the links will actually lead somewhere. I promise. Even though right now, it all seems a bit like getting lost in a maze created by M.C. Escher.

By the way, if you didn't know it, Escher influenced the creator of the movie, Inception.

The image shown above is called Relativity and it was done by M.C. Escher. You can buy a print of it here.

Playing in the snow--woof!

Just for fun

Just for fun, I posted a short story, starring characters from my novel, AFTERLIFE, over on my new site. You can check it out here.

AFTERLIFE is recommended read

UF_Chat, the brain child of @InkGypsy, is a lively Saturday afternoon Twitter chat about everything that falls into the urban fantasy category. I recently had the opportunity to be interviewed as a guest, which was great fun!

On top of that, UF_Chat made AFTERLIFE a recommended read. Woo hoo!

You can read all about it here, plus I'll let you know as soon the transcripts from my on-line Twitter interview are up.

Also, a blurb from InkGypsy's Amazon review, which is posted on the UF_Chat site:
"It's #UFchat's* recommended read for the end of 2010 and we can't wait to speak to Ms. Destefano about how she built and crafted this wonderful novel, with its very real and complex characters, twisted mysteries, wonder-full urban darkness and the cities of the dead. I only have one question: can we have more please?!"— Ink Gypsy on The UFChat Blog

Afterlife Playlist

Writers need inspiration. Lots of it. In the below playlist, you'll hear a small collection of the music that I listened to while writing Afterlife: The Resurrection Chronicles. Even though the main character, Chaz Domingue, studied music and played a mean saxophone, I chose a different type of music to get in the mood.

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A new version of Deck the Halls