This was how I discovered that:

A – I totally missed an awesome series of book giveaways for the 12 days of Christmas at Book Binge

and B – they are featuring Karen Marie Moning in their author spotlight this month.

I love Karen’s books. The Highlander time travel series and the Fever series, she writes fun heroines, sexy sexy heroes and great dialogue. So yay for Karen!

Right now they are hosting a tournament of KMM heroes, so go and place your vote. Oh, and you can vote for more than one (kinda like having your cake and eating it too…but if I think about that too long in reference to KMM’s heroes I’ll need a cold shower).

Currently Diana is on a book tour promoting the recent release of the 7th (of at least 8, I think) novel in her Outlander series, Echo in The Bone. 4 years ago when A Breath of Snow and Ashes came out, I had to miss her visit because the high school show I was directing was in its final dress rehearsal and well, it’s sorta important for the director to be there for that. So when I saw she would be here again, I begged the husband to play superDad  while I made the hour+ drive to meet one of my literary idols.

It was a very nice evening – I met some wonderful women (when you’re in a room of people all as passionate about a book as you are, you make friends very quickly). Before Diana came out, a group of Scottish dancers  performed a variety of numbers.

Sorry for the fuzzy pics, but I have a wimpy point-and-shoot, and didn’t want to use the flash, so I jacked up the ISO and hoped for the best.

I loved the more feminine costumes a few of them wore for some of the dances.

My favorite was the Sword dance – soldiers would perform this dance before battle as a way to predict the outcome (touch a sword or knock it out of place, and things could go bad…talk about pressure!).

Of course, all this Scottish dancing required some music,  and most of it was provided by this fine gentleman.

Then came the part we were all waiting for, Diana herself! She was wonderfully warm and relaxed as she chatted with the audience, describing how she became a novelist and sharing various stories concerning the books and her characters.

She also performed a reading from EITB, the passage she chose made for many giggles from the audience. If you read the book, the part she read involves Jamie and Claire, and a discussion they have involving grey hair and being squidgy.

Then she asked for questions from the audience, and there were many of the usual: when will there be a movie (who knows), when is the graphic novel coming out (fall of next year, she thinks), etc. My question focused on whether she ever found herself working events from her own daily life into her novels and if so, could she provide an example? She said it doesn’t happen too often, but a few she could remember involving direct quotes both came from her husband: one about how bad he smelled and the other while teaching a youngster how to pee standing up. It was an entertaining answer.

While waiting my turn in line for the book signing, I do what I always do these days while waiting for something – I took out Miss Scarlett and began to read.

Did I mention I was in a room full of people who LOVED books? The questions started coming fast and furious…most of them starting with, “Is that a Kindle?” By the end of the night I had several people planning to buy one…one woman even texted her husband demanding he go out and buy it for her 20th anniversary present. As a test driver, I believe I have more than earned the discount I got on my Sony Reader.

Finally, the highlight of the night – I got to walk up to Diana and have 10 seconds with her.

She was very gracious, and smiled for pictures and signed books for the 200+ people in line.  Yet she still took a moment to talk to me and wish me all the best on my writing journey.

Early in her talk, she mentioned she was 35 years old when she decided that if she wanted to write a book, she better get to it. That was so encouraging to me, to know that I can do this, I’m not too old or too late or too anything. I just need to start writing, and more importantly – to keep writing.

I signed up for NaNoWriMo this year, and if I get frustrated and feel like I just don’t have the time, I’ll remember those words…Keep Writing!

And I will.

And who knows what can happen then.

I love books. I love reading them, talking about them, shopping for them, thinking about them…and writing them.

But trying to share my love of books in a long and boring list of links isn’t really much fun.

And then along came GoodReads. (let’s not talk about noun and verb placement in that sentence, mmk?)

I discovered it today while poking around FrenchToastGirl’s site (she’s a MM). “Hmmmmm,”  I thought to myself as I looked over her Good Reads widget…”that looks interesting.”

And, boy howdy, but is this site fun. A wanderlust of organizational bliss for a bookworm like me. Much like my old string-o-links used to do, it keeps track of all my am reading, was reading, will read, etc. lists of books…only they do it in a much prettier package. Plus you can link to other readers, post and find reviews, search for books…oh, and there’s trivia. Who doesn’t love a little bit of trivia?

So check out my super-slick new GoodReads widget over to the right, then if you’re feelin’ it – join up and add me as a friend. Because I’m a pathetic shut-in who reads all day and has to beg for social connections. Well, not exactly (except for the begging).

Oh, and if you’re thinking, “Wow, this woman reads a warehouse-store-sized-shopping-cart load of Harlequins,” please remember, it’s all in the name of research. As for all the other romance novels, I just love reading ‘em, and I’m not ashamed to say so.

The problem is, Miss Scarlett is like that gossipy girlfriend: y’know the type:  the one you spend way too much time dishing with over a few drinks when really you should be doing something more constructive?

Aside from returning stuff at Wal-Mart, one of the items on my list of THINGS I HATE TO DO is leave  a book unfinished. I just don’t like doing it. I feel like I failed somehow. Yet, maybe it’s because I’m growing older and realizing life is short and sweet – I am starting to mellow a bit and have grown lax from time to time. (Hence the list of books I have left unfinished slowly yet steadily increasing in number). I’m going to have to add another book to that list. The book  club meeting for this month’s choice was tonight, and I still hadn’t managed to get farther than the half way point in this book.  Hence (I seem to like using that word) why I’m hanging out here rather than out with the ladies sipping wine and talking smack.

Because in the case of this book, some smack talk there would be. (I just love Yoda-isms).

This month’s pick was Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman.

On the surface, the book seemed intriguing enough, if a little weird. All about superheroes and super villains and their personal angst and foibles and…

In the words of my 6-year-old, “IT WAS SO BO-ooo-RING.”

Really. I don’t know why exactly- the writing just didn’t hit me. I didn’t care that Dr. Impossible was a super-genius. I didn’t care that CoreFire (whoever the hell he was) is missing. And I didn’t care that some 1/2 robotic version of the Bionic Woman was getting all excited to join the super heroes (and possibly get into one of the superdude’s tights).

So here I am, trying to force myself to care whether Dr. Impossible will finally take over the world, and there is Miss Scarlett – silently seductive – just waiting, knowing I’d be much happier with her and her stockpile of romance novels just a thumb swipe away.

Over and over again, the e-reader won. And Dr. Impossible just had to stick it.

Sometimes, on the rare occasion I don’t finish the book before a book club meeting occurs, I will still endeavor to get it done. Not this time.

Oh no sir.

CoreFire can stay missing, and Dr. Impossible can do whatever it is he does on his remote island/underground lab/lair.

Miss Scarlett and I are going to get together to read some more steamy sexxoring.

I just can’t say no to her.

And she knows it, the damn little enabler.

You can drink a glass of wine and read at the same time.

As in: the glass in one hand, and the novel (e-reader) in the other. Simultaneous intake of booze and book.  So convenient when lounging on the couch after the rest of the family has gone to bed.

I suppose you could do the same while holding a paperback…but my dexterity isn’t quite up for that. Especially after a glass. It’s sad but true…one glass of wine and my toes are tingling.

Though I think I have made another discovery: the wine at the bottom of the box has a higher alcohol content.

Yes, I drink boxed wine.

Occasionally.

Please don’t judge me.

Oh, go ahead and judge me – I won’t care – I’m too busy getting soused.

Read some e-books! I have been flirting with the idea of e-books for some time now, but have stayed away from engaging in any activity…until now. I was chosen as 1 of 30 lucky bitches (I say that with love) to “test-drive” a Sony e-book reader for the summer. I just need to take good care of the thing and write a review on what I thought of it. I also get $25 to spend on Harlequin e-books, provided I write 2 book reviews for the SB’s (which is actually pretty sweet in itself).

Just 2 weeks ago, I was reviewing submission requirements to many e-pubs…and thinking how that may be the route my writing takes on the road to “publishing.”  Getting this chance to take a closer look at e-book readers and e-books themselves will really help me make a choice. It’s like an answer from the Romance Gods sent down by Fabio dressed as Arch-Angel something or other.

Summer reading just got a whole lot more exciting…I’ll just have to be careful not to spill booze all over the thing.

Don’t know who the SmartBitches are? You’re missing out; so check out their site, then buy their book. It will bring you hours of entertainment.

And if it offends you that I captioned Lil G with questionable language..well, you REALLY won’t like this.

The other day we went on a shopping trip to Ikea (I needed stuff to help complete the mini-stage for Miss A in our basement…more on that later) and the line was – surprise! – long. Do yourself and your sanity a favor and never try shopping at Ikea on a Saturday.

Anyways, so to keep Miss A amused while I waited in line my husband took her to get a drink.

While in THAT long line, Miss A happened to see a girl wearing the same pink Hello Kitty watch that she had on (not that surprising, since she got it at, gasp!, MickeyDee’s).  That was enough for the two girls to launch into their life stories.  By the time Aishtyn came back with her drink, she was planning sleepover parties.

Wouldn’t it be cool if we could maintain that ability as we got older? We’re in line at the grocery store, and see that someone else has the same babysling or whatever and bam! we’ve made a friend for life.

He started out well enough, with a unique random musing sort of free flow preface that was entertaining at first, but got old pretty quickly. And that is overall, the central problem with this book. Any well-phrased thought or insightful moment the author has is ruined by his inability to let it stand alone; clean and whole and…simple. Instead, he has to unpack the moment/thought/whatever. Unpack it and examine it and complain about it and ridicule it (or brag about it outrageously, depending on the situation) until you are just sick of hearing about it and any pleasure initially derived is lost in a wasteland of, “Dude – will you just shut the hell up!?!?”

That’s another problem with the story – you want to feel sorry for this guy, really, you do. I mean, both his parents die of cancer within weeks of each other (I’m not giving anything away here, Eggers reveals this himself on the dust jacket). But he feels so sorry for himself, that you just want to shake him and/or slap him and point out the fact that there are millions of people out there who have dealt with tragedies much worse…he was in his twenties when his parents die for one thing – sure beats losing them when he’s a kid. And yes, his little brother is still a kid and Eggers has somehow been shouldered with the task of raising him but he has two older siblings to help him out and relative financial stability. Many families are thrown into tremendous debt in the wake of a family member’s illness, but his parents had good health and life insurance; and enough assets that their children could: pack up, move to California, and bascially take the summer off from the realities of life. Not a bad way to deal with a horrible situation, all things considered. So, yes – it’s sad what happened to his family, and while tragedy will often allow for a certain degree of…allowance for otherwise asinine behavior, let’s say…Eggers blows his allowance in the first chapter or so.

Aside from the pages upon pages of musing that basically say the same thing, another irritating aspect of this novel involves the way Eggers deals with his parents’ deaths. Like the speech he gives at his mother’s funeral; rather than focus on the parents he has lost – the memoir is all about how the loss impacts HIS LIFE, how HE has to manage, cope, struggle, deal – and well, it’d be nice if he could do a better job acknowledging the lives that have been lost. His attitude reminds me of a memorial I recently attended for a much beloved professor and mentor at the university I graduated from. Near the end of the ceremony, past students were given a chance to stand up and share a memory of the man who had meant so much to all of us gathered there. A few stories were wonderful; snapshots of his life and personality that had us all laughing and crying. Many though, were about the speaker himself, and about what a great person he turned out to be (I guess the point was supposed to be that this greatness was in part owed to the dearly departed teacher, but the speaker rarely made it around to that point, too busy expounding on their own wondrousness). It all kind of made me sick, and angry, and left me biting my lip in a tremendous struggle to resist the need to jump up and shout, “Sit down! Nobody wants to hear about your life, we are here to remember Jack!” I resented the way these people seemed to steal the beauty of the moment for themselves – and that is very much how I feel about Egger’s work. He is so that guy who would be at a funeral and feel the need to turn the crowd’s attention to his pain, his accomplishments – simply, him.

Needless to say it was a struggle to finish the book, a struggle I clearly shared with fellow bookclub members, seeing as how many chose not to attend the discussion group, not having finished it – including the group’s head organizer, who has never missed a meeting yet. Unable to leave a book unfinished, I pushed through, but found it no great loss to miss the meeting. It was less than a week after I had delivered my baby, afterall, and this novel certainly was not worth the effort of getting out so soon after major surgery.

A statement that leads me to wonder what novels I would deem worth making an extra effort for…hmmm….I have to think about that. Diana Gababldon’s books, perhaps – though I doubt I will ever suggest them to my book club; their length is, ahem, rather intimidating. At least with Gabaldon, every page is interesting…and with the number of pages in her books, that is really saying something.

Overall, the movie version stays faithful to the essence of the book, including many of the more humorous and bizarre situations that nannies who work for people like the X’s find themselves in, such as: normal nanny introducing sheltered child who is on a “high-soy organic diet” to, gasp!, the pleasures of pb&j, having to wear humiliating costumes as you chaperone and schlep your charge (also in humiliating costume) to various business/charity functions, playdates in homes where Mommy is a former Miss something or other and the Nanny’s job is more concerned with watching the mom than the kids, and “Mother/Nanny” conferences that are supposed to encourage communication and harmony between employer and employee but really just shine a spotlight on the yawning gap between the two.

It also includes the harsher, darker side to the lives of perhaps the most important character in the story – the child. These children are, as Nanny at one point accuses the parents of treating them, “an accessory”: something Mom & Dad can polish up and trot out when needed, and ignore the rest of the time. Often they are passed from caregiver to caregiver, changing Nannies with the seasons. While on paper they are worth insane amounts of money, their own feelings of self-worth are impoverished.

It is here where the movie detours from the novel and slaps some Hollywood happy-endingness on to a story that, while may have left the reader with a sad sorrow, was much more true to life. I, for one, am usually a fan of the happy ending. I don’t go to the movies to discover more about the harshness of life – I go to escape and enjoy myself in a place where HEA is a sure thing…a guarantee I can’t get in the real world. However, I also appreciate verisimilitude in a work of fiction, and appreciate the author’s respect for me as a reader; giving me a story that is true rather than glossed over for the sake of my sensibilities. In this, the movie does it’s audience a disservice. I wonder why the director & screenwriter chose to make these changes…was it simply because they want to ensure the audience leaves with warm fuzzies? Or did the true ending of TND hit too close to home for those living lives similar to the X’s? In any case, the film ends with Nanny’s cathartic diatribe causing Mrs. X to undergo a complete character-change. Suddenly Mrs. X is no longer the woman who can’t be bothered by even the gravest needs of her offspring (as demonstrated by her reaction to the news he was suffering a 104 degree fever while she was away at the spa) – and the film ends showing clips of her snuggling with her son, and eating gasp! pb&j with him.

While it is nice (especially for the sake of the children involved) to suppose that such a change could happen so easily and, more importantly, be permanent, I have to say the book’s ending (which you can read for yourself) is a much more accurate, if not uplifting, view of the situation. Though it may not leave the reader with the same sense of neat&tidy resolution that the viewer gets, the book’s realistic ending adds credence to the entire story and leaves the reader, like the nanny in the book, pausing to wonder just how that little boy will turn out…and if the X’s will ever discover what’s worth the most in life.