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Driving With Minnie

March 16, 2009 by in category The Romance Journey by Linda Mclaughlin tagged as ,

The modern world is increasingly wired, or wireless. A new gadget came into my life recently, a Garmin GPS unit I’ve affectionately dubbed Minnie. My DH bought her for me a couple of weeks ago after Janet Corenlow Quinn and I decided to drive to Las Vegas for the recent EPICon2009 Conference. The DH seemed convinced I’d manage to get lost without him, so he bought the GPS unit. He’d been talking about getting one for some time now, and this made for a good excuse. Minnie is the ultimate back seat driver, and she can be very helpful or very annoying. Her directions helped us navigate through Henderson to our hotel, the Montelago Village Resort, a lovely property situated in a faux Tuscan village at Lake Las Vegas. Click here for a slideshow of my Vegas pictures at my blog.

The perverse part of my nature delights in foiling Minnie by not following directions. I love to hear her grumble, “Recalculating, recalculating” in her computer-generated voice. Sunday morning I turned her on to go to Wal-Mart in San Clemente because I knew there was a back way through the hills. Minnie, of course, expected me to take the freeway and Avenida Pico. She had to do a lot of recalculating. I also discovered that while Minnie is fluent in English and French (this model works only in the US and Canada), her Spanish pronunciation is atrocious. And of course the streets in the area were all Spanish. I had to wait until I got to an intersection to figure out which street she wanted me to turn on. Every Calle became a Call. Every avenida became an a-VEN-i-da. My favorite was Call Delay Pazz (Calle de la Paz). By the time I pulled into the Wal-Mart lot she was quite flustered and kept saying, “go to A-VEN-ida Pico” even though we’d arrived at the programmed destination. Obviously, the technology isn’t perfect. I’m happy to have Minnie, but sometimes I just want to turn her off.

What’s your favorite new gadget?

Linda McLaughlin / Lyndi Lamont
http://flightsafancy.blogspot.com

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Holly Golightly, I’m not.

March 13, 2009 by in category Archives tagged as ,

By Bobbie Cimo

I have a feeling perhaps in my youth, I might have spent a tad too much time watching TV and movies.

I mean, do you think it’s normal to fling yourself over a surfboard in Hawaii–ask someone to snap a picture of you, even though you can’t swim, just so you can pretend you’re Gidget for a moment?

I once owned a beige plaid coat with large fur trim around it. I bought it because it reminded me of the coat worn by Doris Day in “Pillow Talk”. She had it on when she was riding in an open convertible, driving to a weekend getaway in Connecticut with Rock Hudson sitting behind the wheel. I loved that coat, and every time I wore it I felt like Doris Day. Years later I realized that the coat looked nothing like Doris’ and the fur around my neck looked like road kill.

Then there was the time I had the Farrah Fawcett hairdo. I drove myself crazy, trying to keep those feathered sides up, just like hers. It wasn’t until my hairdresser reminded me that for every five steps Farrah took, there was a hair stylist with comb in hand, making sure she remained perfect for every photo shoot and TV scene that she did.

During the eighties I was a big fan of the series “Dallas”. And my favorite character on the show was JR’s wife, Sue Ellen (Linda Gray). I particularly loved Sue Ellen’s wardrobe. Especially the tailor-cut suits she wore with a thin camisole underneath the jacket and accessorized by a fashionable wide belt. Not only were her outfits stylish, but they were considered sexy. Back in those days, CBS would host an annual “Affiliates” conference during the month of May. This is where we would wine and dine TV station owners all over the country, with the hope that they would purchase one of our shows for their local stations.

One particular year we did a “Dallas” theme, where we took over a hotel parking lot and made it look like Southfork (the name of the Dallas ranch). And of course I did wear, as I liked to call it, my Sue Ellen suit. Two eventful things happened that day. First, the director’s wife and I swiped a six pack of JR’s Beer (not yet available to the public) and hid it in the tank of a toilet–so we could sneak it out later to split and take home. When we finally confessed to her husband, he didn’t know if he should laugh or be mad. And the other memorable thing that happened was that I actually ran into Linda Gray, who stopped me to tell me she liked my outfit. You know that put me on cloud nine.. And to this day, one of my long time friends who used to work at CBS still affectionately refers to me as Sue Ellen whenever she writes me.

Also held as an annual event was the Ross Martin (Artemus Gordon in “The Wild, Wild West” TV series) Celebrity Tennis Tournament. This was a charity event held in La Costa, California where for the admission price of $10.00 you could spend all day with such celebrities as Lucille Ball, William Holden, Merv Griffin, Michael Landon, Eva Gabor and numerous others . You were never treated like a fan, but more like a guest.. You were free to walk the grounds and mingle with your favorite celebrity, take pictures with them if you liked, or simply sit in the bleachers eating a hot dog while enjoying a good tennis match alongside of them.

One year during my visit to La Costa I met George Peppard (as seen in the picture above). Most of you might remember him, not only from the “The A Team” on TV, but also as Audrey Hepburn’s love interest in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.

Ironically, many years later George’s son Brad ended up working at CBS, and when I was introduced to him, I wanted so much to shout, “I love your father”…. but I didn’t.

When my sister and I went on our first New York vacation, we made a list of things we each wanted to do: See a play, go shopping at Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, take a carriage ride through Central Park, eat at Tavern on the Green and have breakfast at Tiffany’s. The breakfast one we couldn’t do, simply because there wasn’t a pastry place close enough. So we did the next best thing, we bought pretzels from a street vendor and brought them inside the store.

We might not have had breakfast at Tiffany’s, but we had our pretzels. It wasn’t long before an impeccably dressed salesman approached us to offer his assistance. Just as we took our first bite, without missing a beat, using the back of his hand in a butler-like manner he brushed away the salt that had fallen on top of his glass display counter.. Of course we apologized, but he never acted annoyed. At the end of our visit my sister did end up buying a small pair of turquoise earrings. And just like when Holly Golightly wanted to have her Cracker Jack ring engraved, Tiffany’s treated us as if we had just bought an exquisite pair of diamond earrings. Holly Golightly-ish? Well, maybe.

In closing, all I can say is it’s a good thing that “King Kong” wasn’t one of my favorite movies, or I might be writing about the time I went swinging from the top of the Empire State Building

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“Romance in the Backseat” Video Project with Terry Kate: Part 2

March 11, 2009 by in category Archives tagged as

Romance in the Backseat

by Jina Bacarr

Attention: published authors in the OC/LA area: Have you contacted Terry Kate about your chance to film an author interview in the backseat of a car?

You haven’t, why not?

Don’t be skittish–a friend or your better half can drive while Terry films. C’mon, go for it!! Terry is looking for pubbed authors who are willing to read an excerpt and talk about their books (she’s going for a PG-13 rating). Nothing HBO-ish here, just fun, romantic videos for your fans to enjoy.

On deadline? No excuse. I’m finishing “The Blonde Samurai” with one hand and writing this with the other, but Terry is scheduling my video when I’m deadline-free. She’s great to work with and has a real passion for what she does.

Terry has already filmed OCC authors Jackie Diamond Hyman and Linda Wisdom.

Why not you next?

According to her website, Terry says: “The video of the full interview will be on a website dedicated to the project, shorter teaser pieces (45 sec to 1 min) will be an opportunity to grab attention. Make it personal, fun, funny, and most importantly personal. I want this to be a forum where authors are allowed to express themselves more freely then a formal interview and have fun with the project. What often draws me to buying a new author is the excerpt at the back of a book. An option for the longer interview piece is to introduce the story, then read a few pages. Fans go to hear authors read all the time and new readers/viewers will be drawn in.”

Her site launches soon, don’t delay! You can get more info about her project here.
http://romanceinthebackseat.com/

I’m looking forward to filming my video, so don’t miss out.

Email Terry today at: Terrykate@Romanceinthebackseat.com

And now back to our regularly scheduled deadline…

Best,
Jina

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jinabacarr

Jina Bacarr is the author of The Blonde Geisha , Naughty Paris, Tokyo Rendezvous, a Spice Brief, and Spies, Lies & Naked Thighs, featuring an Indiana Jones in high heels.

Coming in April 2009:

Cleopatra’s Perfume

“One whiff and every man was her slave.”

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The Best Story Ideas

March 8, 2009 by in category Archives

Have you noticed that some authors always seem to have great ideas for their books? By which I mean, you read a one-line description of the story (or maybe a couple of sentences) and you think, ‘Wow, I want to read that!’

Other authors, I might love their books and buy every single one, but I don’t necessarily fall in love with their ideas. I read the book confident that I’ll fall in love with the story, but the idea never jumped up and grabbed me by the throat.

The best ideas don’t necessarily have to be out-there ideas like The Time Traveler’s Wife, or some of Jodi Picoult’s books (though out-there is great, too). I’m thinking about, in romance fiction, a story that might fit right in with the genre’s conventions, yet something about the idea grabs me and makes me think I want to read that book. (Being a writer, I usually also think, “Darn, I wish I’d thought of that,’ but I’m trying to be a better person and get over that) 🙂

So, who do I rely on for consistently “wow” ideas? Every Jennifer Weiner book I’ve read, I’ve fallen in love with the idea (Good in Bed, Goodnight Mr. Nobody etc). Susan Mallery (I’m thinking Falling for Gracie and others) and Kristan Higgins (Catch of the Day and Too Good to be True)…more great ideas gals. In young adult fiction, Meg Cabot consistently comes up with those I-love-it ideas (Princess Diaries is an oldie but a goody, plus How to be Popular, Airhead, etc).

Tell me which authors you think consistently write stories based around a great idea, or a great hook, and I’ll check them out!
Abby

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THINGS THAT MAKE ME GO MMMRUH!

March 7, 2009 by in category Archives

Boycott!

by

Geralyn Ruane


Do you know anyone who belongs to a restricted country club? I don’t, and I would be appalled to find out that I did. The idea of enjoying rights others are so flagrantly denied smacks of Nazism, fascism, racism and hate.

Yeah, I think everyone in California should boycott marriage. Everyone. Until everyone has the right.


Though she makes her film debut in Daryl From OnCar, our winsome blogger adores same-sex romantic movies such as Latter Days and Imagine Me and You . Geralyn co-hosts the radio show Better Times After 50 on AdviceRadio.com and her short story “Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants” is published in the New York Times Bestselling anthology The Right Words at the Right Time, Volume 2.

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