If you follow my contributions to this blog you know that I often get my inspiration from one of my many yahoo groups. Thanks to one of those groups I have my idea for this week…. what is your opinion of books made into movies? The book being discussed is The Secret Life of Bees, which I personally have not read. I have not seen the movie either, but am being led to believe it shall soon be available on DVD. So the dilemma is…do I read the book first or watch the movie first? What would you do? What about when you have already read a book, such as when I had already read The Pelican Brief by John Grisham, and then it was turned into a movie. Naturally I had to see the movie, and I felt very satisfied that the movie followed the book. However, when I read The Client (my personal favorite Grisham book) I was disappointed when I saw the movie because I didn’t think it followed the book well at all. This leads to the idea of Harry Potter…the books versus the movies. Naturally they can’t put everything from such a large book into…

I signed off with that last week and didn’t get a whole ton of feedback, but ah well, it didn’t stop me from reading more stuff. So, because I’ve got a full day including an 8am stop at Central Market Plano for their ‘to-die-for’ pancakes — very very early on a Saturday — I need to buckle down and write. This week was filled with thrillers, weepers, and a little bit of historical romance. First off…finally finished DARK OF NIGHT and was a bit disappointed in the quality of the book. I mean, seriously folks, it’s a f@#ing hardcover and the pages are falling out with one read? And I am NOT a messy reader. No dog earing, no cracking of spines or folding of pages. Geez! That put me off greatly BTW. Even if I got it at Costco and not full retail, a hardcover with pages falling out! What has the world come to? Oh, and the book was good. I wasn’t entirely happy with the reason for all the thrills and chills, but the ride was satisfying. Why did Nash go on all those ‘covert missions’? I didn’t buy the “money” angle. Ah well. Maybe there is…

Emilie Richards A serial killer? Well, I didn’t become one, of course. Not exactly. But lately, and I have to admit the following part is true, people are dropping dead all around me. And by my hand. Buy Your Copy today Of course my hand is on the computer keyboard whenever bad things happen. And the people dropping dead? Not nice people, for the most part. People you and I would cross the street to avoid. People who enjoy causing trouble for others. People who are sure the world revolves around them. Serial killers get to choose their victims. And there are so many places to look. Take reality shows, for instance. Haven’t you ever wanted to rid the world–or at least the television studio–of some of those judges? You know the ones I mean. They’re sarcastic and egotistic and often downright cruel, all in the name of ratings. They’re the ones we love to hate, and still, like bystanders staring at a train wreck, we just can’t seem to pull ourselves away. Well, I got rid of one of them this year. got you hooked? read the rest of Emilie’s blog… Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and…

Most things in my life happen when I’m trying to do something else. I don’t even mean the big things, like planning to write a dissertation and coming out with a series of romance novels instead (ought I to get an RD for that? I like the sound of Romanciae Doctor), or the fact that if I meant to go right, I usually walk left (I find all sorts of new and interesting places that way). This happens to me in my writing, too. What I wind up writing is seldom exactly what I intended it to be. Take my first book for example, the lengthily titled Secret History of the Pink Carnation. I very firmly told my agent that what I had produced was a “traditional Regency romance”. My agent is a very kind, patient sort of person. Instead of making snorting noises, he said, very gently, “Are you sure?” I was quite sure. “Um…” he said, flipping through the mental filofax for Tactful Ways to Deal With Deluded Authors. “Are you really sure?” That’s how I found out that what I’d really written was Napoleonic-era historical fiction/ romantic suspense/ mystery/ chick lit. No can quite agree on what…

I love writing. I feel fortunate that I get to make my living at putting words to paper. It means that I get to indulge my love of doing what I enjoyed when I was a child, which was read every single word I could get my hands on. Now I get to read wonderful works by other authors and friends, and sometimes I feel like I have a front-row seat to the ever-changing publishing world. I see a book make a bestseller list and I think, “Wow! I met that author!” Call me perpetually star-struck because I suppose I am. I root for everybody’s careers and the state of the publishing industry because this is my team, the team that allows me to stay at home and do what I love to do most: Write, read, be a mom, a wife, a good neighbor and friend. Click Here To Read More Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

I love writing historical romance, researching the backgrounds and working out how my hero and heroine are going to resolve their dilemmas. Although the majority of my books have Regency backgrounds, I have also used the English Civil War, the Jacobite Rebellion, the building of the railways (Working Man, Society Bride) and the outcry for and against building the Crystal Palace in Victoria’s reign (A Desirable Husband). Romance can be found in the most unexpected places. For instance, the conflict between Roland, the Earl of Amerleigh and Charlotte Cartwright in The Earl and The Hoyden, just out in the UK, involves a quarrel over the ownership of a Shropshire lead mine. Click To Read More Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Not very often, thankfully, life tosses in a time of great challenge to you on many levels. I am sure that many of you are nodding your head in agreement. Such has been the case in my real life this past few weeks. My mind is only just today slowing down from the whir to be able to grasp something as “normal” as writing this blog. But in the greater picture of life, it is also these moments of great challenge that can provide a clearer perspective on your life. Maybe get you to slow down a bit, or reassess your time and goals, maybe organize things a bit better to make life less stressful. There is no way of finding the magic cure-all for such moments in life–they are going to happen and it is in how I handle these times, what blessings I find, or lesson I learn, that will make the difference. Interestingly–and perhaps it touches a part of me that has before experienced these moments–it is why I like to write about heroes and heroines, who for the most part (depending on the era) may have ordinary lives that are similar to yours or mine. Granted…

It’s extremely hard to believe that we are at the beginning of the second month of 2009. That leads to the question of how did your resolutions pan out so far? Most of my self improvement resolutions have gone by the wayside, but my reading resolution to watch the personal outlay of cash for new books has held firm, though my TBR has grown a lot thanks to a great DFW Tea trade, and a very generous gift card from Amazon. I also belong to another trade site that has added a couple of books. Of all the new books in my pile only one was personally paid for with cash out of my pocket. Not bad! Then I had resolved to participate in two more reading resolutions. One was to read the EYE SPY Challenge Word that one of my yahoo groups is doing. The word for January was Snow, and I read Not So Snow White by Donna Kauffman. While the story was enjoyable I personally liked Dear Prince Charming better. Then I needed to read a title by the author of the month for the DFW Tea Dinner Group. January’s author was Laura Griffin, and I read…