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Read The Knot? Like the setting? Go back...Hometown sweethearts Eddie Colvert and Sarah Monroe face an uncertain future following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941. When Eddie joins the Army, Sarah reluctantly agrees to postpone their spring wedding and prepares to face the holidays without her beau. But Eddie has one more loving surprise up his sleeve...
Stay tuned for release details, and be sure to join The Wild Rose Press cast and crew at Sweeter Romantic Notions all day on Saturday, September 30. I'll pop in and out--we have orientation at The Day Job, so I'll slip in before and after.
Psst! Want make-up for a dollar?
First--congrats to Bailey Stewart! She correctly identified three visible polar bears in my office photos. Please send me your snail mail addy and preferred inscription, and I'll get The Knot right out to you :) There are actually six polar bears in the office, but only three were in the photos. Yes. I know. It's a really cute sickness.
So...I'm perusing last week's Creative Loafing, and there's an article about Aerosmith titled Rockin' the Joint. Since there's been some discussion of 'when do you know when to quit' editing and soforth, this piece of the article (by Kenvin Ransom) hit me where I create.
"'A lot of times, your intentions are to get that lean, gritty sound, and when you listen back to the tapes, it ends up not sounding like that at all,' says Perry. 'There are just so many variables when you go into the studio anymore...these days it's so easy to get a so-called perfect sounding record, so the tendency is to do that because you can. Back in the day, we were always striving to get that one great take. But now it's so easy to do that because you can just keep massaging things, but you can also end up massaging it until it's dead. So the trick is to know when to stop. It's too easy to sterilize the song too much. I mean, there's a lot of young artists today who 'get it', and who've put out some great stuff, and there are others who put out crap--and you know, we've done both.'"
I have the eye twitch. You know, that annoying spasm in your lower eyelid? Left eye. Which can only mean one thing. Stress. Yes, boys and girls, it's the wild week between quarters! Only one week before the biggest start of the year. Who's idea was it (corporately speaking) to have only one week at this point in the year? Don't answer that. I can't do anything about it anyway.
I did get before and after pics of my office posted, if anyone wants to see where I write (and do my notes for class). It's tough to get good light in the room, so I have to make the colors clear--red curtains and wall, khaki on the other walls, and black furniture. In one shot, the khaki looks yellow, kind of like McDonald's. Think "Target" instead. There you go...
I'll send an autographed copy of The Knot to the first person to correctly guess how many polar bears are visible in these shots :)
Does anoyone else use iTunes? I just uploaded the latest version, and I swear, it's more trouble than it's worth. It always effs things up. Stalls, doesn't play well with the other programs. Tips? I just wanna listen to some tunes while I write, but it frustrates the bejezus out of me. That's right. I said it. The bejezus. Take that, iTunes!
"Really? You're going to the Motley Crue/Aerosmith concert? Really?" I'm not sure why it's such a big surprise, I suppose it's my demure exterior. *snicker* But if you were to ask me my favorite group? Hands down. Aerosmith. Seen them about ten times and saw them again last night.
L. and I were discussing the concert afterward, and she said, "The first song I really remember was in the third grade--Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'." Yep. That's right on target. I grew up with Bon Jovi and Poison and the Crue. 1983 was about the time I discovered Aerosmith, with their Permanent Vacation release--Rag Doll, Dude Looks Like a Lady, and my favorite off that release, St. John. Then I got into the back catalog. I was in love.
Last night, Motley Crue (all the original members) opened for Aerosmith. While I like a handful of their songs, and didn't mind seeing them...the truth came out after they closed and Aerosmith came out. The Crue are still boys. They paled next to the finely tuned catalog of the Bad Boys. So yes, I love metal. More specifically, I love Aerosmith. I'll catch anything they feel like throwing out there.
I'm also fairly certain Steven Tyler and Joe Perry have made some kind of pact with the devil, wherein they don't actually age. They other guys look like hell, but those two? Shoot. Interesting crowd, too. Just a tad creepy to have a bevy of 13-year-olds raving about how sexy 55-year-old men are.
One day soon, we'll discuss my growing love of anything connected with Rob Zombie. Soon. I promise, as soon as I have some reasonable explanation.
I like film noir. I like James Ellroy. I like Brian DePalma. I carried no particular biases against any of the cast. And I have biases, believe me. I didn't mind the movie, but I didn't love it, either. I'd read the book, and thank goodness--otherwise I'd still be sitting in the theatre, trying to figure it out, like the two ladies I passed on my way out. I still feel guilty for not sitting down and drawing them a map, 'cause that's what they needed.
Let's put it this way--James Ellroy writes a tight story. Tighter than tight. Tighter than...well, there are a couple really entertaining euphanisms in the flick that describe his kind of 'tight'. Everything ties up in the end, and I do mean everything. Even if it doesn't make sense in the moment. When you're reading, it's a mental adventure because you just know that somewhere somehow, all these random bits are going to fit together.
Unfortunately, this kind of story doesn't always translate so well to film. And this is one of those times. LA Confidential got Ellory right. The Black Dahlia did not. And now I *might* have a Josh Hartnett bias. I should be impressed he does internal angst so well...but sheesh. His self-pity nearly turns me against him in the end.
I put it off until the end. So I could practice. So I could get everything right. This weekend, I'm painting the office. It's time to get this room done up. I have the paint, the ladder, the brushes, the rollers, the purple (they have purple now!) tape.
I'm sitting on go. Nail holes have been spackled and sanded. I even ordered frames for the items I want to hang on the walls. This was my last week to lecure for the quarter, and I've already done my grading. No excuses, except that pesky writing thing...
Cover me. I'm going in. Tomorrow. After work. Just me and my walls. It's a date.
There's been a mass murder. Bodies strewn all over. Limbs frozen in mid-struggle. The carnage strikes fear into the hearts of all who pass by. And rightly so. Whoever did this must be a mad man!
Or an exterminator.
I have an ant problem. A big problem with (dare I guess) millions of tiny legs. When I bought my townhouse, the linoleum in the kitchen had pulled away from the sliding glass door, the inspector said, because the slab froze over the winter when the place sat empty. I knew that replacing that floor would eventually happen, but have to wait becasue of funding. Now the ants have moved in. They've built homes and networks under the linoleum. Only the devil knows how far inland they've come. I do what I can with a can of raid and a vacuum cleaner, and pray for the winter freeze to come early.
I'm terribly scared to have that floor pulled up. There'll be big trouble in River City then...
The Wild Rose Press is hosting a Cyber Party this Sunday, September 10 @ 8 p.m. EST. Join TWRP editors, authors and readers for give-aways, information, and fun. Click HERE to register in the chatroom - don't forget to bookmark the site!
I have great photos from the launch party of The Knot. Click HERE to see the album.
My interview at Almost Famous Writers will be up Friday - many thanks to Bebe Thomas for the fabulous opportunity.
Margaret Marr's rave review of The Knot is up at Nights & Weekends! Here's a sample:
The Knot is the stuff great movies are made of—a vintage setting, a family torn apart by tragedy, and a moving love story. Very few authors can suck me into a story so thoroughly or make me fall deeply in love with the hero, but Ms. Kindall has done it here. Heather is a tough, assertive woman, yet very likeable—making her worthy of the hero’s love. It’s so hard to pull off that type of characterization—yet Ms. Kindall masters it beautifully.
I think that's it! Whew!