Yesterday, Robert Parker–he of Spenser fame–died at his desk, at work on a book. Isn’t that the way a writer should go?
Spenser is the kind of guy I’d like to know. Smart, tough, accomplished. It seems that’s the kind of guy Robert B. Parker was, too. We’re lucky we get to know him a little through his books.
Parker was 77 and the author of more than 60 books. The New York Times obituary reports the cause of death as a heart attack. I hope it was quick and clean and that Parker, absorbed in that novel in front of him, never knew what hit him.
RIP.
January 20 2010 | Stuff | No Comments »
The lovely and talented Emily McKay, who is up for a 2010 Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times, has a Silhouette Desire Online Read up now, and it’s free. Her Boss’s Private Affair is just the thing if you want to add a little spice to your holidays.
Did I mention that it’s free?
Emily McKay
December 16 2009 | Books | No Comments »
I’m not really a photography expert, but I know what I like, and if you ask me, there’s a lot to love in this shot of Elijah Wood from the September cover of H magazine. Like a great story, it’s got tone, mood, character, texture, lighting. And face it, people, Wood is just plain gorgeous here.
In my past life as a magazine editor, when I assigned a photographer to a story, I told him what it was about and suggested what might work, but, ultimately, I trusted his artist’s eye. Sometimes, I traveled on assignment and had to be both writer and photographer. Each time I clicked the shutter, I prayed that eye would be there for me.
When proof sheets came in, I poured over them, searching for that one shot that supported the story visually and told its own even if you never read a word of the copy. Sometimes it took a whole roll of film or five or ten to get just the right one. But as they say, film is cheap, but the perfect picture is a pearl beyond price.
I gotta hand it to the photographer here. She’s got the eye. Or he does. Whoever. It’s beautiful.
September 25 2009 | Beautiful Creatures | 1 Comment »
I have always adored Stephen Fry. Maybe he’s not everyone’s idea of beefcake, but I like my men brainy, funny, gifted, and not afraid to be silly. Fry is all of those things and has been so fabulous in everything from “Black Adder” to “Jeeves and Wooster” to, yes, even “Bones” that I cannot help loving him. In fact, one of the greatest heartbreaks of my life came when I learned that he was gay and was never, ever going to want to marry me, no matter how much I begged. Of course, that didn’t stop Berry Berenson from marrying Tony Perkins, but that was a different era.
Here’s Fry talking about writing being hard. I just had to share.
September 09 2009 | For Writers | No Comments »
So, here I am noodling around with the pitch for my agent appointment at the Romance Writers of America conference in July. I’m trying to figure out if my book has high concept and how to pitch that if it does. Because it’s always nice to have someone explain an idea that I have trouble applying to my own work, I Googled “high concept book” and came across this great post from the Waxman Agency. Enjoy!
June 11 2009 | For Writers | 1 Comment »
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are as gods to me. I worship them. The brilliant Brimstone–the first in the Diogenes Trilogy within their eerie, compelling thrillers that feature FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast–enthralled me from page one. Preston and Child are erudite without being stuffy. They scare the hell out of a girl without resorting to the cheap or lurid. And their prose is to die for.
I’m in mad love with the eccentric, intellectual, deliciously Southern Pendergast. For two years, I’ve been on tenterhooks since Preston and Child stranded him and his protégée Constance Green in a remote Tibetan monastery at the end of The Wheel of Darkness. Imagine my joy when the latest installment in Pendergast’s adventures, Cemetery Dance, arrived last week.
This isn’t the best of Preston and Child. Never ones to balk at risks, they kill off one of my favorite recurring characters up front. I forgave them for that. Reluctantly, but I did forgive them. His demise drives the story that centers around a secretive cult, animal sacrifice, and zombiis. Their plots are always beautifully planned and their pacing is taut, but something’s a little off here. I didn’t feel the suspense as much. Maybe they were tired after each wrote a bestselling book of his own between the last Pendergast novel and this one.
Special Agent Pendergast is in New York City to investigate. But what’s happening to Constance back in Tibet? There’s only one reference to her here. These guys must love torturing their readers as much as they do their characters. I hope they’re not going to make me wait another two years to find out.
Cemetery Dance may not be Preston and Child at the top of their game, but it’s still a ripping good yarn. And I do love them so.
May 21 2009 | Books | No Comments »
The brilliiant, gifted, all-around fabulous Sherry Thomas is blogging at Dear Author about how books get to your library shelves. Check out what she has to say about why the library is the perfect place to try out new authors.
And if you haven’t read Sherry’s wonderful historical romances yet, run, don’t walk to your local bookstore–or library–and find her. Sherry’s latest, Not Quite a Husband, releases today.
May 19 2009 | Books and For Writers | No Comments »
I’m as shallow as the next girl when it comes to eye candy. It’s in my blood. My 80-year-old mother still appreciates male pulchritude as much as I do. Ask her about it when she turns to look at a handsome man, and she’ll say, “I may be old, but I’m not dead.”
Last night, I went to see “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” with my children. I enjoyed every shot of Hugh Jackman’s magnificence and all the other fine-looking men in the cast. Finest of them all was Daniel Henney as one of the villains, Agent Zero.
This is him. He’s 6′2″. I hope I’ll be seeing lots more of Mr. Henney.
May 09 2009 | Beautiful Creatures and Movies | 2 Comments »
If you’re heading to the RWA conference in D.C. this summer, All About Romance posted a guide to things to eat, see, and do in D.C. Don’t forget to read the comments, too, which loaded with great tips.
Thank you, Julie Kenner, for pointing to the AAR link on your blog.
April 29 2009 | Stuff | No Comments »
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