…Because today is the day! Have fun, world!!
Who is ready for some fun…?
Who is ready for some fun…?
…Because today is the day! Have fun, world!!
Marilyn
Happy Birthday, pretty lady.
If you’ve never seen Mare in action, check her out in my favorite, The Prince and the Showgirl, along side Laurence Olivier. Classic movie magic!
“You know what’s going to happen? I’m going to fall in love with you. Because I always, always do.”
“Always?”
“Mm-hmm. Both times. So you better watch out. You better watch out!”
Marilyn
Happy Birthday, pretty lady.
If you’ve never seen Mare in action, check her out in my favorite, The Prince and the Showgirl, along side Laurence Olivier. Classic movie magic!
“You know what’s going to happen? I’m going to fall in love with you. Because I always, always do.”
“Always?”
“Mm-hmm. Both times. So you better watch out. You better watch out!”
Review: "I Think I Love You" by Allison Pearson
DISCLAIMER: I do not do book reviews. (Clicky HERE to see why.)
But the book I just finished is so special, that instead of pulling everyone in the world aside to rave about it, I thought I would try my hand at a review. (Heaven help us all.)
“I Think I Love You” by Allison Pearson
Publisher: Knopf (February 8, 2011)
Pages: 336
Format: Audiobook
This is a story told from two points of view–which I sometimes find annoying.
The story opens in 1974 with Petra, a thirteen-year-old girl from Wales. . .who is OBSESSED with David Cassidy. Her favorite thing to do–besides play her cello in secret–is lay around her best friend Sharon’s bedroom and read “The Ultimate David Cassidy” magazine. The best part of this mag is the personal letter written directly to the fans from David himself. Petra and Sharon feel like they actual know David….deep down. They know he loves horses and his favorite color is brown and his favorite food is. . . .
The parallel story is twenty-two-year-old Bill, who has just landed his first real journalist job in London, writing for (embarrassingly enough!) “The Ultimate David Cassidy” magazine. Bill has never met David, never listened to his music, never seen The Partridge Family. Yet Bill is put in charge of writing those “personal” letters from David. After eighteen months of this, Bill sometimes feels like he IS David Cassidy. Bill’s favorite color is brown. Bill’s favorite food is. . . .
Fast forward twenty-five years. The inevitable colliding of these two (or is it three?) people is delightfully nail-biting. And the end result was satisfying beyond words.
That’s all I’m going to tell you about the plot. Because I’m not about to spoil the surprises.
Here is what I LOVED about this book:
David Cassidy was a generation before my time. In fact, I’d never heard of him until I was in college. (Thank you, VH1 and your “I Love the 70’s” series!) However, the brilliance of this story is how I was able to simply replace the name David Cassidy with say, Michael Jackson and later, Jordan Knights, and I was right there with Petra. The crying, the longing, the loving, the music, the believing-every-word-in-the-mags, the kissing-his-poster-to-bed-every-night. I did all of that, as I’m sure millions of other teenaged girls did. The emotions were so real and so fun and so heartbreaking.
I knew this girl, because I WAS this girl.
 |
| He is dreamy, rather. |
Beside all of this, the writing is beautiful and clean and descriptive. And I would highly recommend the audio version because the narrator (Sain Thomas) totally kills the lilting Welsh accent (as well as British, German and American). She doesn’t, however, do any of the singing, leading me to find so many David Cassidy treasures on youtube. . .which has been great fun, since the only song I knew before this book was its namesake.
Four out of five stars. (It would’ve been five had it been about the Backstreet Boys.)
Who was your teenage crush? I told you mine. . . . .
Review: "I Think I Love You" by Allison Pearson
DISCLAIMER: I do not do book reviews. (Clicky HERE to see why.)
But the book I just finished is so special, that instead of pulling everyone in the world aside to rave about it, I thought I would try my hand at a review. (Heaven help us all.)
“I Think I Love You” by Allison Pearson
Publisher: Knopf (February 8, 2011)
Pages: 336
Format: Audiobook
This is a story told from two points of view–which I sometimes find annoying.
The story opens in 1974 with Petra, a thirteen-year-old girl from Wales. . .who is OBSESSED with David Cassidy. Her favorite thing to do–besides play her cello in secret–is lay around her best friend Sharon’s bedroom and read “The Ultimate David Cassidy” magazine. The best part of this mag is the personal letter written directly to the fans from David himself. Petra and Sharon feel like they actual know David….deep down. They know he loves horses and his favorite color is brown and his favorite food is. . . .
The parallel story is twenty-two-year-old Bill, who has just landed his first real journalist job in London, writing for (embarrassingly enough!) “The Ultimate David Cassidy” magazine. Bill has never met David, never listened to his music, never seen The Partridge Family. Yet Bill is put in charge of writing those “personal” letters from David. After eighteen months of this, Bill sometimes feels like he IS David Cassidy. Bill’s favorite color is brown. Bill’s favorite food is. . . .
Fast forward twenty-five years. The inevitable colliding of these two (or is it three?) people is delightfully nail-biting. And the end result was satisfying beyond words.
That’s all I’m going to tell you about the plot. Because I’m not about to spoil the surprises.
Here is what I LOVED about this book:
David Cassidy was a generation before my time. In fact, I’d never heard of him until I was in college. (Thank you, VH1 and your “I Love the 70’s” series!) However, the brilliance of this story is how I was able to simply replace the name David Cassidy with say, Michael Jackson and later, Jordan Knights, and I was right there with Petra. The crying, the longing, the loving, the music, the believing-every-word-in-the-mags, the kissing-his-poster-to-bed-every-night. I did all of that, as I’m sure millions of other teenaged girls did. The emotions were so real and so fun and so heartbreaking.
I knew this girl, because I WAS this girl.
|
| He is dreamy, rather. |
Beside all of this, the writing is beautiful and clean and descriptive. And I would highly recommend the audio version because the narrator (Sain Thomas) totally kills the lilting Welsh accent (as well as British, German and American). She doesn’t, however, do any of the singing, leading me to find so many David Cassidy treasures on youtube. . .which has been great fun, since the only song I knew before this book was its namesake.
Four out of five stars. (It would’ve been five had it been about the Backstreet Boys.)
Who was your teenage crush? I told you mine. . . . .
happy weekend!
I don’t know about you, but I intend to live in this picture all Memorial Day Weekend.
I hope yours is a great one too!
 |
| (via: hoodoothatvoodoo) |
happy weekend!
I don’t know about you, but I intend to live in this picture all Memorial Day Weekend.
I hope yours is a great one too!
|
| (via: hoodoothatvoodoo) |
Follow Your Dreams! (aka: I just got back from DFWCon)
I went to my second writers conference last weekend.
I LOVE being with with so many people who are in the same boat as me. I joke around that writing conferences are like meat markets. . . you can walk up to anyone and know they are there for the exact same reason as you. No need for awkward, “so, what brings YOU to a place like this?” small talk.
Some highlights of my 2 days of writerly-talk fun are pitching to a lovely agent who didn’t laugh me out the door when I talked to her about my new story. And the two rounds of The Gong Show. I learned so much about what agents like and–more importantly–what completely turns them off. Yeah. Good to know.
I took loads of notes in my classes, but I’m going to include some below. . . so in case my notebook goes missing (it could happen!), I will have them saved in cyber heaven. Also, one or two of you out there might be interested too. Oh course. 🙂 Here are some of the points that really jumped out and grabbed me by the throat.
Think Positive.
Make goals, write them down.
Where do I want to be in one year?
Treat writing as my job.
Start the story in the breath before everything changes.
Get characters out of their comfort zone.
Torture your mc.
What is the worst thing possible to do to my mc? Do that.
Keep characters in the moment…know their current desires, fears, etc.
Give characters a lack, a wound, a mystery to solve and an internal conflict.
Create a memorable BBT (“big bad troublemaker”)
There must be a goal and an antagonist in every scene.
Be genuine not melodramatic.
Keep moving forward.
You are your brand.
“Break every rule.” -James Rowland (Keynote speaker)
Wow. Just typing those out made me exhausted. Excuse me while I collapse.
Follow Your Dreams! (aka: I just got back from DFWCon)
I went to my second writers conference last weekend.
I LOVE being with with so many people who are in the same boat as me. I joke around that writing conferences are like meat markets. . . you can walk up to anyone and know they are there for the exact same reason as you. No need for awkward, “so, what brings YOU to a place like this?” small talk.
Some highlights of my 2 days of writerly-talk fun are pitching to a lovely agent who didn’t laugh me out the door when I talked to her about my new story. And the two rounds of The Gong Show. I learned so much about what agents like and–more importantly–what completely turns them off. Yeah. Good to know.
I took loads of notes in my classes, but I’m going to include some below. . . so in case my notebook goes missing (it could happen!), I will have them saved in cyber heaven. Also, one or two of you out there might be interested too. Oh course. 🙂 Here are some of the points that really jumped out and grabbed me by the throat.
Think Positive.
Make goals, write them down.
Where do I want to be in one year?
Treat writing as my job.
Start the story in the breath before everything changes.
Get characters out of their comfort zone.
Torture your mc.
What is the worst thing possible to do to my mc? Do that.
Keep characters in the moment…know their current desires, fears, etc.
Give characters a lack, a wound, a mystery to solve and an internal conflict.
Create a memorable BBT (“big bad troublemaker”)
There must be a goal and an antagonist in every scene.
Be genuine not melodramatic.
Keep moving forward.
You are your brand.
“Break every rule.” -James Rowland (Keynote speaker)
Wow. Just typing those out made me exhausted. Excuse me while I collapse.
Ophelia London 