Author Archive
No matter how many times I read or see things in shows, there are times when the writers and/or actors nail an emotion so perfectly, I want to stand up and applaud.
(**SPOILER ALERT** I’m going to be discussing the movie Love Actually and last night’s episode of House)
Emma Thompson is, without question, one of the best actresses on the planet, and her character in Love Actually is one that so many women can relate to. There comes that moment in the movie when she opens her Christmas gift from her husband (played by the amazing Alan Rickman), expecting the gold necklace, and finds a CD instead.
Ugh.
You can actually feel her heart stop. You can feel the instant panic that floods through her as she realizes what her husband has done. She goes into her bedroom, on the pretense of wanting to listen to the CD, but once there, we watch her struggle to get a grip as her whole world starts to crumble. She can’t fall to pieces right now – it’s Christmas Eve for goodness sake and she has two children dressed and ready to make their big stage debuts at the pageant. It’s the most heart breaking scene of the entire movie and I’ve often wondered if any other actor or actress would have been able to pull that off. I wonder if the writers had any idea how impactful those few moments would be to their movie.
On last night’s episode of House, we see him go through a horrible detox. And who is there with him? Cuddy of course. He is truly at his worst during this, but thank goodness it sticks it out because he finally rids himself of Cut-Throat-Bitch once and for all. Then, right at the end, we finally get to see him with a tiny bit of his guard down. Did you see it? She says to him “You want to kiss me right now, don’t you?” And House responds “I always want to kiss you.”
For a sappy romantic like myself, that made the whole show. Not the kiss itself, just him admitting that out loud. It was huge. In this instance, I’m certain the writers knew how impactful it would be, and it was.
When we’re writing, we know exactly which scenes are going to pop off the page and slam our readers, but sometimes, it’s the scenes we’re not expecting that pack the most punch. Obviously, every scene in a book is important, otherwise it wouldn’t be there. Each scene must move the story along, do something, create some kind of conflict or resolution, and sometimes, the scene only needs to be a few lines long to make the biggest impact.
Do you have any favourite books that have done this to you? Any favourite shows or movies that left you awestruck over the way the writers handled a particular scene?
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
Such was 2008.
The highs were as high as they could be and the lows were equally as extreme, but we survived it and stayed up to welcome in what we hope will be a slightly less eventful year. Nobody wants to listen to the bad stuff, so let’s talk about the good, shall we?
On April 1st, my first Devil book was released. THE DEVIL’S DAUGHTER was a twist to the ‘normal’ western historicals I write in that the heroine is, in fact, the devil’s daughter. She strikes a deal with dear ol’ dad whereby she’ll win her freedom if she can hand over the souls he specifies. Sounds easy enough, eh? Yeah, well, maybe not.
On December 1, the sequel, DANCING WITH THE DEVIL, was released. In this story, Deacon (who we meet in the first book) has come back to do something that is completely unheard of: he’s come to make ammends with a human! Needless to say, dear ol’ dad isn’t very happy about the whole thing, and Deacon’s plan is further complicated when the woman he’s come to apologize to shoots him before he has a chance to explain. Deacon learns fast that it’s a whole lot harder being good than it is being bad.
And since things tend to happen in three’s, we had one more exciting thing happen this year. On November 12, we opened our very own bookstore! The Bookshelf had been a bookstore under a different name for 30 years, but when the owner announced she was ready to retire, my husband suggested we buy it. And why not? It’s not like we didn’t have enough stress in our lives up to that point (cough choke wheeze), so we did it. Can you say HUGE learning curve? I can. In fact, I can probably say it in several different languages now. It’s been amazing, confusing, exciting and overwhelmingly overwhelming, but I wouldn’t change a thing about these three events. As for the rest of the year. . .we won’t go there.
(I’ve been trying to upload pics of the covers and the store, but I can’t seem to do it. If I can figure it out, I’ll post them later!)
Happy New Year to everyone! I hope it brings nothing but happiness, good health and all things good!
Cheers!
Laura
Reason to Write
It’s safe to bet that none of us here at RWAOL need a reason to write. We write because we can’t not write, it’s that simple. But for the month of September, we have more reason to write, and it’s for an amazing cause.
Unleash Your Story is a write-a-thon (or read-a-thon) to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. If you, or anyone you know, is even remotely affected by this disease, you know how important it is to find a cure. They’ve come a long way since I first learned about CF thirty years ago, but they still haven’t found a cure, and we need to help them do that so that our children’s children won’t have to live with this disease.
Debbie Macomber is our pace setter for the month and she has set the bar high. Her goal is to write 30,000 new words this month and it’s up to all the participants to set their own goals. Our hope is that this first year will raise $10,000 and we’re well on our way to that goal already. We have individuals signed on, as well teams who combine their totals.
If you would like to sponsor us in this event, please go to our CF site and make a donation. Simply type in the name of someone who’s participating (like me!) and your donation will help that person reach their personal donation goal. We do not handle the money at all – it goes directly to CF – and you can rest assured they will put it to good use.
And if it’s not enough fun to write or read all month, there’s more! We have prizes to give away, too! So please take a moment to read about this event. We have stories from families who are affected by this disease which will help you see why it’s so important to find a cure. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated and CF will provide you with a tax receipt for all donations.
I’m going to stop blogging now because I have some serious writing to do if I have any hope of keeping up with Debbie!
Countdown to Beijing
Ever since Mom and Dad made me watch Nadia Comaneci score her perfect 10s in Montreal in ’76, I’ve been hooked on the Olympics Games, and as Opening Day approaches, I find myself planning my life around the events. This means finding a way to get a TV into the campground next week so I don’t miss anything.
In the back of my mind is a little voice that keeps reminding me of the negative aspects to the Games. The judging that hasn’t always been on the up-and-up, the athletes who find new and untested ways to chemically enhance their abilities, and of course the stories surrounding the host city and country itself.
And yet the Pollyanna in me keeps trying to muffle that voice because this is the part of me that wants to see the athletes do their thing. This is the part of me that wants to believe each and every one of those athletes made it to the Games on sheer determination, dedication and God-given talent. This is the part of me that wants to get teary every time the gold medal winner (whomever he or she may be) gets to stand on that podium and have his national anthem played. What a feeling that must be!
If you’ve never seen the movie “The Cutting Edge” with DB Sweeney and Moira Kelly, I recommend you rent it. It’s about a washed up hockey player and a prima donna figure skater who end up as pairs partners in the Olympics and of course fall in love along the way. But the road to the Games (and each other’s hearts) is not an easy one. You’ll laugh out loud at what a b*tch she is to him, and you’ll physically cringe when you see what she goes through to get one particular move perfected.
It’s all about dedication, and dedication is what brings us together here at RWA. We all want to write, and we all want to write well. Can we all be Nadia Comaneci, Catriona Le May Doan or Michael Phelps?
No, of course not. Some of us (ahem) aren’t that flexible, coordinated or aquatically inclined, but that doesn’t mean we give up. It simply means we find our own sport, our own genre, and we keep going. Just like the athletes who train hour after hour, day after day, so must we. Even when we feel like crap and we just don’t want to do it. . .we do it.
Because we want to be on that podium one day and we want that gold medal (or RITA as the case may be)
But just like the Olympic athletes, we’re not going to get anywhere by simply wanting it. We need to go after it with both hands. The Olympic Games are the perfect time to find new inspiration, new determination and new respect for all those who continue to push themselves every day in whatever field they are in.
So chalk up people – the uneven bars are waiting!!
The Devil’s Daughter
THE DEVIL’S DAUGHTER is out!! After months of waiting, most not so patiently, it’s here!
Lucy is the devil’s daughter (literally) who’s trying to get the hell out of. . . well. . .hell! LOL If she can take the souls of this unsuspecting family, she can trade them for her freedom, and she’s willing to do anything to succeed.
Anything, that is, except actually work. But work she must, and it’s more than just the physical chores she’s expected to do. Her new husband is making her work for his soul, too. Unlike most men, he won’t give in to his obvious lust, but insists they build something more before they get physical.
Lucy’s got her work cut out for her and just when she thinks she’s finally going to get what she wants, she realizes what she really wants has changed. And that is going to mess up everything!
I’m so excited that this book is out now and I hope you enjoy it, too.
Cheers!!!