Start the conga line

And now for your eyes only, I am going to unveil ... MY FREAKIN' COVER!!

Can I just tell you how awesome I feel right now! I love the cover Beth at Secret Cravings Publishing did an amazing job. I am so excited. Start the conga-line people, it is a day for celebrating.

Nothing like getting your cover in your in-box to spark up the creative juices!!!!

Peace Out,
MRD

Short and Sweet

No real post this morning, I have an interview for a new dreaded day job! It's at 8:00, so I have to focus on that and hopefully later working on some writing while waiting for my new fridge to be delivered.

Oh, I also have to come up with a bio for the Secret Cravings website. So exciting!!!

Peace Out,
MRD

Do reboots really work?

This weekend is the huge Comic-Con in San Diego. So recently I have been reading a lot of articles about who is going to be there and what the convention topic are going to be about. I have to tell you, it is my dream to go there one day. Yes, I am a huge geek but I am secure enough in my geekdom that I can confess it and not be ashamed.

So two of the "news-worthy" articles coming out of the convention this year is the new reboot of Superman and Spiderman. On September 1, DC comics is coming out with a brand new reboot of the Superman series. The brand new change is that Superman and Lois Lane are not a couple. In fact, she has a different boyfriend in the #1 of the series. Their rationale is that having a couple already together is boring. No one wants to see a happy couple, people want to see the struggles they go through to get together. I am of two minds on this topic. One side of me is saying that we know that eventually they are going to get together, so I could take the journey of a modern-day superhero trying to save the world but also find love in his life. The other part of me screams that happy couples are not boring and what a horrible thing to say. Now we have to go on this emotional roller coaster ride following a couple that we know is going to end up together. What a way to set low expectations for readers. Some of us love to read books about our favorite couples after they struggle to get together. Just because a couple is together and happy doesn't mean there is not any conflict or struggle in their lives that we the readers might find interesting. I spend a lot of time after reading a good book thinking about different scenarios that the couple might go through in the future. It is what good readers do after we have invested our time and money in a good book.

I won't even go into all of the various movie and television reboots that Superman has gone though. Some very good and some not so good.

Spiderman is going through a whole new movie reboot with brand new actors, directors, and story directions. The problem I have with this is that Spiderman's girlfriend in this new movie is not going to be Mary Jane. It's going to be Gwen Stacy. My question is why am I going to invest time in this relationship when I know it's not going to last. Not going to happen! I don't think it's going to work. But who knows, I have been known to be wrong before.

So here is the big philosophical questions, can we reboot our own lives successfully? I am going to try it.  I have two weddings coming up in the course of this next year and I vow to lose weight. So that means no more early morning trips to Dunkin' Donuts. It's going to be hard but I will not be the chunky woman in all of the pictures. So I am sitting here eating cereal and not the sausage, egg, and cheese on a croissant that I really want.

Peace out,

MRD

When is it too much?

As the years pass by, I more and more enjoy "Cougar" stories. Maybe it's because I am around the age of the characters in the books, I don't know but as I reader, I can't get enough of them. As a writer, I'm not ready to write one yet.

So this weekend, while I was avoiding writing (Yes, I said it!), I was surfing the net reading headlines that caught my attention. There has been one out there that I have seen a lot late. So I finally decided to check it out. "Lost star 51 marries 16 year old." I am a huge fan of the show Lost. I used to follow it religiously, read everything written about it, and have weekly discussion with my friends about it at lunch. Anyone who's wrinkling their nose at this, I know you have similar conversations about American Idol, Survivor, and etc. So don't judge. 

As a reader and writer, I can suspend my belief in a lot of things. With this, I have hit the so-called proverbial "brick wall". Here was this man and "woman" talking to a reported from GMA about their "love story". I am going to rewrite the previous sentence to make more sense in my mine. Here is this old pedophile and a child talking about their illegal/immoral union. Except, here's the kicker, it's not illegal. The reason that it is not illegal is that her parents "gave their blessing" for this relationship. This man also did his research and took "the child" to a state that legally allowed this crime, just as long as the parents approved. 

First of all, what is wrong with these parents? How could they possibly approve of this situation? Personally, I want to call Child Services on their ass. They don't deserve children and possibly should have state ordered sterilization because they should not ever be allowed to breed again.

Secondly, the girl looks like a stripper. I am sure that I am not the only one who wants to scrub off all of the make-up off of her face to and put her in a pair of jeans, instead of her stripper garb. I want to send her off to the nuns to knock some sense into her. "I'm a very old soul," she giggled through the interview. Honey, if you truly were a very old soul, I can tell you that you wouldn't giggle while you discussed it! At sixteen years old, I don't even think that I was ready to date. I was writing fan fiction about how I wanted to meet and fall in love with John Taylor from Duran Duran at the time. Scandalous at the time considering he was ten years older than me. If ever in the universe my sixteen year old self actually met John Taylor, and he ever flirted with her, she would have been struck dumb and run home on rubbery legs as fast as her legs could carry her. No way, no friggin' how!!!!

Thirdly, this man just makes me sick. Let's never mind that I don't know what small role he played in Lost, it must have been so small and insignificant that it escapes memory but he actually makes me want to vomit. How sick and delusional, do you have to be to convince yourself that what you are doing is right? I can't even go on, I feel my cereal coming up on me!

There are limits where the age gap is just too much! Just a rule of thumb, when you are older than your bride's father, it shouldn't be considered a May-December romance; it should be illegal!

Peace out,

MRD

Happy Harry Potter Release day

Today the very last Harry Potter movie comes out in theaters and I am EXCITED!!!! Although it's a bit bittersweet because this series has been part of my life for such a long time, it's tough to see it end. I myself was a tad late getting on the Hogwarts Express. By the time I became aware of the books, the first one was sold in paperback by then. Of course this annoys me to some degree that I don't have a complete set of hardcover editions. Yes, I know I could probably buy one and will sound like a freak for saying this but I couldn't do that to my paperback edition. It served me fine. LOL! Maybe I'm a little like Sue Heck on In the Middle putting electric curlers in her hair in a different order each time not to hurt their feelings. Ok, maybe I need a little help but don't we all have our own little "things".

Or maybe it's the story behind the writing of Harry Potter that intrigues me. A woman on welfare goes to a coffee shop to keep her in and her baby warm and write a series of novels that has earned her more wealth than the Queen of England. Isn't that the hope of every writer? Something we wrote sparks an interest in the public and catapults us to greatness. I think it gives us hope that it can happen! We all need hope.

It has been a terrible week where I have been totally hopeless. I won't bore you with the details but with a little retail therapy and Harry Potter, I just might be able to face the day with a small smile on my face!

Peace out,
MRD

Great beginnings

While I was cruising the Entertainment Weekly site this morning, a headline popped out at me. It was called the Thirty Best Movie Opening Scenes. So of course being the curious cat that I am, I decided to investigate. Most of the movies I had seen before and would have to agree that the opening hooked you immediately and you were on board for the rest of the movie. So it had me thinking about beginnings of books and how important it is to "hook" the reader right from the get go.

When I teach young children about writing, I devote a bunch of lessons on "good beginnings". I teach them about the "dialogue beginning", the "setting beginning", and the "action beginning". I spend a lot of time talking to them about the "hook". What I find ironic is that while I am all about decomposing writing for children and having them go step by step into a finished piece, I don't think about author's craft at all while I am actually writing. I just right. So am I a hypocrite? Am I doing children a disservice by teaching writing in a technical way? Or am I giving them the tools, so that when they do become accomplished writers, all of these techniques are in their writing repertoire that can be unconsciously called upon at a moments notice.

Do you think about craft while you write, or edit, or revise? Or not at all?

That's all for this morning, I have an absolutely killer headache.

Peace out,
MRD

Oh where are you muse??

Ok bitch, where did you go? It seems like me and most everyone else's muse has taken a vacation. I have all of these ideas floating in my head but every time I sit down to write, I get about a few hundred words before something else distracts me. I know it's not permanent and I know it will pass but it is sooooo friggin' annoying.

See I've already lost interest in writing this blog for today! LOL.

You know what's also not helping is that people on my publisher loop keep posting about their new contracts. I am starting to feel the pressure to produce more and my process is very easy going. I write when I want to, but everyone announcing new contracts is killing me. I think part of me is waiting for my cover and my edits. Sorry to sound like it's all about me but in Marie world it is ALL about ME! I am a firm believer that there has to be a place in your life where it's all about you and that place for me is in my writing.

I don't know if I announced this yet, I'm too lazy to go back through the posts but my brother after only dating this girl for 6 months is now engaged!!!! "G" is over the moon because she hopes that this is her chance to be a junior bridesmaid. "C" has already announced, he's not going to wear a "monkey suit". Where did he get that phrase? He's only eight for crying out loud! LOL! My sister and I are now in constant fear that we will be asked to be bridesmaids. We both feel that we are too old and happily she's the type that still has a lot of college friends. So we are both off the hook. I just can't imagine buying a bridesmaid dress right now. Oh well....

Peace Out,
MRD

Difference between men and women

I don't understand real men sometimes. They do things that I don't understand. I will give an example of something that annoys me about my husband. If my husband can't sleep, he thinks that it's absolutely hysterical to "mess" with me while I'm sleeping. It doesn't happen all the time but every blue moon, he get into a silly mood. Last night was one of those nights. I went to bed at 9. I had participated in a loop discussion with the writers from Secret Cravings Publishing. You wouldn't think that it would make me tired but being witty for three hours straight is exhausting. I was ready to sleep as I got comfortable, he started asking me questions and talking to me. "What time do you have to be at work tomorrow?" When he heard that I only had a meeting at 11:30, he said, "Oh good, you can stay up with me and we can talk and spend time together." WTF! I would like to remind everyone that I am on vacation and have been home for the last week and a half. I tried to stay awake but once I hit the bed, I'm all done.

So I wake up a little while later, while he is trying to balance a Dorito on my lips. It must have ticked me off even in my sleep because I woke up in mid-swing. Smack! What does the boob say to me, "What? Doritos are your favorite." Really while I'm sleeping? This is something eleven year old girls do at a slumber party. What a boob! That's all I can say.

Another way we are different is evident in a poll that was posted at the local sports channel website.  They asked people about what celebrity trial they were most interested in the outcome. I'd have to guess that most of the people who responded were men, not all but most. Here is the breakdown:

1. Whitey Bulger
2. Roger Clemens
3. Casey Anthony
4. Jared Lee Loughner

I consider the first two choices very regional and specific. You're really only going to be interested in Whitey's outcome if you are interested in New England mobsters. I hear that Jack Nickelson played him in some mobster movie but I really only know him from the news. Roger Clemens is big news around here because of his time with the Red Sox. This is why he is only remotely interesting to me. Do I really care that he lied about taking steroids? Not really! My mother and sister followed the Casey Anthony story religiously. I actually had to referee a heated discussion about it between my mother and brother. I think that if this poll was given to women, this would have made it to number one. There were even some women who went down to Orlando for the verdict. The last guy, I am ashamed to admit, I had to look up. He is the crazy guy who shot the Arizona senator in the head and killed all of those people at a public appearance.

What are your thoughts? If  you had to take this poll, how would it turn out? Do you think if it was posted on a cooking site, would the outcome be different?

I think I might try and take a nap. Is it really taking a nap when you just got out of bed? My brain is not ready to function yet.

Peace Out,
MRD

One episode left

Last week, a friend of mine, Miranda Stowe, put up a drool-worthy picture of my "boyfriend" on her Sexy Man Saturday post. If you truly want to wake up with a smile on Saturdays, totally check it out. Not to be outdone, I had to put up one myself. I just finished watching last night's episode of Friday Night Lights. My heart has been breaking for what they have done to this poor character.  I sure hope that the writers have come up with a good ending for him, considering there is only one episode left! Now before anyone reminds me that Tim Riggins is a fictional character and no a real-life person, I do understand that but what has always intrigued me is the "characters". Maybe it's the writer in me. When I fall in love with a character, I fall in love with that character.

Is there any character on TV or in a book that you absolutely fell in love with?

Peace Out,
MRD