Book News and Boys with Back

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.

A Soldier’s Fate E-Book

The saga of why it’s more than a week late is below. Meanwhile, here’s how to find it:

For Microsoft Reader, use this link:

A Soldier's Fate Microsoft Reader

For Acrobat PDF, use this link:

A Soldier's Fate Acrobat Reader PDF

The paperback should be on amazon.com in about three weeks.

The Saga of the Missing Notebook

I got a call from my proofreader on Monday or Tuesday of last week. She said that it looked like something was missing from the manuscript. I looked at the pages she’d e-mailed back and realized a whole notebook was missing. I hadn’t noticed, because I changed my routine with doing this book. I input the notebook pages, send it to the proofreader and then refine it. Since I was typing on autopilot, I just didn’t notice. We couldn’t find the notebook, of course. I had to work from my outline and what I remembered. In the midst of all of that, there were crises amongst my friends that I simply couldn’t ignore. It was especially hard to ignore the problem that showed up on my doorstep. I was glad of the visit. But the ordeals left me exasperated, bereft and heartbroken. It’s hard to write erotica after that. Somehow, the pages were done by the wee small hours on Sunday. I sent the pages to the proofreader while Jon and I went to see Speed Racer (more on that below). Why go to a movie when exhausted? A friend worked on it and it had been weeks since the release. We had to see it before it left our theater. He’s expecting a comment soon. Jon formatted the pages into the .pdf when we got home. The website will go up tomorrow.

This was a traumatic end to what had been a largely pleasurable experience. I love Rik and Vincent more than ever, and I’m not sad that the book is finished. They won’t be away from me for long. Aside from developing A Soldier’s Choice into a script, there will be a third book sometime next year. The guys have a bigger battle to fight on behalf of their kind. And there are my readers to continue. The first book is still selling well, and I’m getting mail from all over the place. I mean, some really surprising countries. It’s all very flattering and exciting.

Month of Fun – Almost Done

I’m still managing small indulgences in the midst of all the hub bub. They are mostly food related, of course. I am having lunch with two attractive actors. I suppose that is an oral and visual indulgence. The big treat was actually Speed Racer. I know the reviews were not very kind, but I thin the reason for that is two fold. One, there’s great fun for critics to bash the Wachoskis. I never thought they were deserving of the delirious praise over the Matrix films though I really liked Bound. However, I think that lately the critics are engaging in their favorite thing of bashing what they had built up. If they knew anything at all about the subject of the film (Basically, Speed is young race car driver who gets involved with international intrigues that often involve the fate of the world and who lives with a little brother and a monkey that have their own intrigues) shouldn’t be expecting anything that resembles logic. I think the film did quite well in constructing a plot that didn’t make my head explode, and it had far more character development than it had any right to have. Beyond that, it had some really, really adorable boys to look at. And all those young man had back, if you know what I mean – even the delicious Taejo Togokahn, played by Korean pop sensation Rain, a nemesis of Stephen Colbert. It was an amusing little film, a proper tribute to the animated series and a treat for the eyes.

I have a marvelous rant on the end of the TV season, including CSI: Miami, but I’m too tired to finish now. It will be a treat for next week.

Blog Delay

I'm in the middle of a lot of craziness today. The blog and a major annoucement will be up this evening or late tonight. Stay tuned.

Hats, Rants and Blofeld Blues

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.

Too Many Hats

I hit a wall late this week. Actually, I literally feel like I hit a wall at high speed. There have been too many hats to wear and too many tasks to juggle. And there have been many diverse, personal responsibilities pulling at me. Almost two weeks ago, while under more than my usual levels of stress, I twisted my back. I’ve since been searching for that one position that doesn’t cause me screaming pain. That position seems to change on a whim. Worry not, I’ve been through this before. It just takes weeks to really heal. Thus, those who have contacted me this week via phone or e-mail and thought I was a trifle snarky. I was. Sorry about that. This affliction has not kept me from doing the work my hats demand. A Soldier’s Fate is in the hands of the proofreader for a final check. She’s very busy and popular, but she promises that she’ll get it back to us asap. Jon has the formatting done and the web page is ready to upload (there’s even a never seen excerpt on the page). It’s just a matter of days. I'll make a blog announcement the moment the links are live.

True Art

If you haven’t yet, you must pick up a copy of Sarah Feligh’s Sort of Gone. And if you don’t believe me, hear the amazing radio interview and commentary here. Sarah knows baseball and she sure knows her poetry. But somehow, the discussion of both in that interview is so down to earth and accessible, that anyone listening would be moved by it. I wish I could write poetry.

Right now, I need a Haiku that uses the words, cellphone and flame-thrower.

Month of Fun – Halfway Through

The fun continues even if I’m on the floor with my legs propped up. Minds out of the gutter, you naughty readers. The chocolate cake was a success. And that chocolate butter cream icing is so sinfully good, I’m thinking of marketing it in squeeze bottles to use as party favors (now, your minds can go to the gutter). We had a rare day off from the Archive last Monday. And between our plans falling through and my back, we happened to be home to watch some wonderfully dreadful daytime TV. Whenever I’m home on a weekday, I like to catch an episode of Hawaii 5-0. The last time was the pimp themed episode we watched during Thanksgiving. This time it was an early episode that we had never seen before. I hadn’t thought that was possible. It was a hoot, but I’ll say more about that when I do my TV rant below. We still haven’t seen any of the new releases. I’m hoping that will change next weekend when we have another three-day holiday. I’m also hoping to feel good enough to stand in front of a stove for as long as it takes to make that fish soup a la Anthony Bourdain.

Gunslinger Trailer Q and A

We’re getting waves and waves of hits and some lovely comments. I’ve also received some really good questions via the production company’s e-mail. I’ll summarize the questions and answer them. The most asked question was Is the scene in the trailer one that will be in the film? No. The dialogue in the dinner scene is from two different scenes. I stitched them together to explain what is behind the many misconceptions about Shadow Smith and what is at the heart of KD’s range war with Tom Kenner. That scene covers most of the main plot of the film. There will be a table-top love scene in the film that plays out much the same way as it does in the trailer. That love scene is the tamest of the feature. Matt doesn’t like that Shadow Smith novel, does he? No, he really doesn’t. It isn’t until KD actually reads him some of the story that he realizes how off the mark it is from his life. The novels have made being on the run very difficult. He is also flummoxed by their popularity. This was a reality in the Wild West. Dime novel versions of real life heroes and villains were very popular and caused some strange situations for the subjects of the fiction. We’ve speculated that if there is more than one film about Matt and KD that these stories will continue to bring them problems. Will we get to see Shadow in action? I’m assuming that means action other than the love scenes. Yes, the viewer will see Shadow in action. There are early scenes that clearly demonstrate that his reputation isn’t entirely fictional. He can be a very dangerous man. Viewers need to see that first to understand how complex he is later in the film. Keep those hits, comments and questions coming.

CSI: Miami – Better with Tivo
Warning: Spoilers and run on sentences below.

It’s clear that I need to record the show first and watch it with the ability to skip the dopier parts. Though in last week’s episode, that would have been most of the show. I nearly broke the remote trying to fast forward through the thing. Before anyone gets their knickers in a knot, it is always good to see Garett on TV. I know he’s happiest when he’s working, and I was tickled when I heard he’d be guesting. But even he wasn’t happy with what he saw. Apparently, he was color corrected in post to a shade of tanning salon orange (I thought it was the make-up) and he was aged (I thought it was the make-up). Those weren’t my only problems with this real bomb of an episode. There was their Anthony Pellicano character played by Tom Sizemore, who I thought was still in jail. No Private Eye or attorney can get a crime scene investigator pulled of a case while it’s ongoing. They may have something that could challenge the validity of the evidence at trail, but no civilian has that kind of sway with a department. Law enforcement would respond by yanking the guy’s PI license and perhaps jail him for obstruction. Have none of these writers ever seen an episode of Harry O? I don’t see why they even need to collect evidsence. The department seems to have acquired the computer systems from Minority Report. Why waste time with gunshot residue or even DNA when they can just ask the Precogs who did it? The plot was so convoluted that it was hard to follow. The Hawaii 5-0 episode, King Kamehameha’s Blues that involved an elaborate caper complete with lowering a live cat from the roof onto a museum floor to see how sensitive the alarm was made more sense. No one explained why the college kids planned such an elaborate caper to steal King Kamehameha’s cloak, but it still made more sense than CSI: Miami’s plot of staging an accident which ended in a confrontation then faking a man’s voice in a 911 call that caused SWAT to bash in Garett’s character’s door and shoot him. The device the secretary of Garett’s evil partner used to fake a man’s voice looked just like the device Blofeld used to mimic Jimmy Dean’s (yep, the sausage guy) voice in Diamonds are Forever. I think that about covers it. One more episode to go. Then I can relax and focus on finding out who is the 5th Cylon.

Mid Week News - The Gunslinger Trailer is Live

The trailer is live on the myspace page http://www.myspace.com/hiddenpassions (where there are photos and other fun stuff) and on the website:
http://hiddenpassionfilms.com/gunslingertrailer.htm

Please look and comment (glowing comments, please). Travis, Jennifer, Jon and the crew worked very hard on this and are all very proud of the results. We hope you will enjoy them, too.

Food and Flies and Opera Torsos

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.


It’s been an odd week. Part of the oddness is my own distraction from film related things that have come up recently. Anything related to film has a ‘you must act now or the opportunity will be lost.’ Typically, I’d drop everything to follow-up on whatever request was being made. This time, I didn’t. The projects are unrelated to the Gunsligner, so they aren’t that urgent. Besides, the e-book for A Soldier’s Fate has to go online this week and there are some pipeline issues that have cropped up with the latest Demonspawn novel. Thus, I must wear the writer/publisher hats. Still the urgent and tense phone and e-mail messages keep coming. Oy!

Month of Fun

It continues at a fine clip. Surprisingly (or maybe not), most of the fun I seek involves food. I made a lovely mushroom soup from the Anthony Bourdain cookbook. Today, I’ll make an insanely decadent chocolate cake a la Ina Garten and a pasta dish that involves lobster. And the fun will be in the making – and in the eating. Aside from wanting to make these dishes, it would be folly to try to go to dinner on Mother’s Day. And I can still get proofing done while various dishes are doing their things. And Jon made sure I have my favorite champagne to help things along. I’m holding off on that until the blog is finished. During the week, I’ve enjoyed re-connecting with friends from past shoots and finding a cooking class in Paris that I can afford during my trip. I was so excited to find that the company we’re renting the apartment from is linked to a cooking school in the neighborhood and with a discount. This was exciting and helped a little the intense longing that dozens of Cannes Market screening invites I’ve been getting in my e-mail. It only helps a little. However, the Month of Fun is a lot of fun. And thanks for all the lovely birthday wishes.


Lording over Flies

I don’t have a lot to do for The Gunslinger until we formally start pre-production in a week or so. Jon is compressing the trailer or oppressing the trailer. I have no clue. He’s making it fit in the myspace.com format. However, I did find a solution to the biting flies this week which makes me very pleased with myself. I don’t like the notion of ‘that’s just the way it is.’ I can’t have my lovely actors eaten alive. Or lovely me, for that matter. Insect bites can’t be good for concentration on a role. I won’t know what can be done about the heat until we’ve visited the location. I’ve got some plans forming though. We saw a portable rig that worked well in the very hot and humid New Jersey warehouse where Oz was shot. It made the building very comfortable while outside was like a horrible swamp. Next up are sunscreens. All that lovely skin must be protected. Meanwhile, I have to find out exactly what Travis has been shaving. Don’t ask.

Mamma Mia

To all of those who qualify, Happy Mother’s Day. I admire Moms a great deal. I just couldn’t believe how they can handle kids, a husband, and often, a job. My Mother worked full time with only a two week vacation each year (France has six weeks vacation. And we call ourselves civilized hear). And the vacation had to be spent either in the heat of a Georgia summer with her in-laws or in Atlantic City in a rental apartment where she still had to cook. In either case, she was spending it with the two lunatic children who couldn’t stand to be in the backseat of a car together for more than ten minutes. Once I started working full time after college, I took my Mom on real vacations that involved a lot of room service. On a side note, after spending an hour with my darling little nephew in my car at age five, I took my Dad to dinner and thanked him for not leaving my brother and I along I-95 during those trips to Georgia. His very dry reply was that he was a cop and we knew his name. But back to Moms. They are all to be commended. I have trouble getting my act together with just Jon and me. I don’t think I can fit in our chores, the proofing and a movie today. Pathetic. I marvel at how My Mother held it together. And my Ma-in Law had five kids, God bless her. I salute her for never leaving the lot of them in the woods during the family camping vacations. And she still likes her kids. Amazing!

High Culture and Low

This week, CSI: Vegas was delightful. It was written by some of the staff writers from the comedy Two and a Half Men while CSI writers wrote that show’s episode this week. They weren’t inter-related, but they were highly amusing. CSI managed to skewer how sitcoms are made and the people who make them while Two and a Half Men lovingly but thoroughly spoofed everything about CSI. It was brilliant as well as keenly accurate. Meanwhile, CSI: Miami drifts further into melodramatic goofiness. One of their regulars has called it quits. I can’t say I blame her. Khandi Alexander is a critically who was given very little to do on the show. I just wish her departure had been less dopey. The upcoming episode with Garett Maggart looks even more annoying. It seems that even if you’re being held at gunpoint while managing to get the bad guys busted, Internal Affairs can still bust a cop who tampers with evidence. The justice system in CSI: Miami doesn’t seem to like it’s own police officers. It allows murder suspects to sue cops or CSIs for doing their jobs and win said suits. They almost never back their own cops if something gets remotely sticky. I don’t see why this system is worth upholding. But I’ll save the rest of the rant for next week. On the high culture side, there was Nathan Gunn’s appearance on The Colbert Report. He was there to promote opera performances that are being shown in certain movie theaters. I’m not sure what else he said, I was fixated on this photo. I’m not an opera fan, but I think I can support watching Mr. Gunn’s performances.

Gotta go bake and proofread and imbibe vast amounts of champagne.

May Days, Pin-up Boys and Tricorders

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.


May Days

The Month of Fun has begun. It’s been low key fun, but enjoyable nonetheless. I had a surprise from my French friends who sent me lovely e-cards for the month-long celebration. Then, there was a surprise from Bruce. He’s the best cook I know amongst my male friends. He sent me a lovely set of spices and a raspberry glaze. I used one of the spices, ground Ancho chili peppers in the black bean chili I happened to be making yesterday. Thanks Bruce! I had all sorts of fun deliveries last week. The T-shirts Jon and I had made for Gabriel Koerner for Speed Racer turned out even more twisted than I thought it would. A big thanks to Bruce again for the image scan. Saturday was the Kentucky Derby. My mother and I used to have big parties on that occasion as a way of celebrating Mother’s Day and my birthday. I think it was because we could sip bourbon with impunity. In her honor and the days, I had a couple of mint juleps. Then, I had to take a nap. For such a genteel sounding drink, they’re basically straight Bourbon and pack quite a wallop. No movies this week. We have to wait on Iron Man until after Speed Racer. I really wanted to see a film this week, but Jon and I are working on projects (he’s finishing the trailer and I’m finishing the corrections on A Soldier’s Fate). The mint juleps were as frivolous as I could get this weekend. Next weekend, will be another matter entirely. Much is afoot that is strange and wonderful.

Pin up Boys

It is a great burden and hardship, I assure you, that part of the promotion for Hidden Passion Films is a full-color calendar of most of the male actors. Now, when I say hardship, I don’t mean looking at the calendar. That would be silly. No, I mean the conversations involved in getting my sometimes surprisingly shy actors on board with the notion of being a romantic pin up to attract viewers to the films. Some conversations are easier than others. After declaring that he wouldn’t pose in chaps without pants, Garett suggested appearing in just a gunbelt with his pistols strategically crossed over his six shooter. Fortunately, I had already had a mint julep before he called to tell me when his CSI: Miami was airing. He has good reason for being leery of what sort of calendar I have in mind. He’s seen the French Rugby Pin-up Calendar I hang near my desk. I think he’s torturing me in advance of finding only a thong on the costume rack in his dressing room. You do that just once, and they never forget. The HPF Calendar won’t be as risqué unless the actors go wild in front of the camera. Then, who am I to stop them? Some actors have gone through great lengths to show me that they aren’t right for a calendar. I hear ‘see, look’ and this lovely young man has dropped trousers to convince me his legs aren’t just right. It took all of my professionalism to get through that discussion without being accused of harassment. I usually don’t have that kind of good fortune. More on that later. Travis has been working out since the trailer with spectacular results. I mused aloud that perhaps Shadow Smith didn’t need to wear a shirt in the film at all. Just a neckerchief and occasionally the duster was enough costume. He didn’t think that was how cowboys of the period actually went about their jobs. However, I think he’ll go for it with the calendar. Now, the problem will be getting the elderly male actors to keep their clothes on. I speak from experience. Demon Under Glass had nearly a dozen really hot guys on set from the leads to the commandos. The one I see in an advanced state of undress was our 70 plus year old mad scientist. That’s the kind of luck I usually have. But worry not, the HPF Calendar will be smokin’!

Rik, Vincent and the Tricorder

I was asked I had what seemed to be a Tricoder used by Doc Auerbach in A Soldier’s Choice. Since the book is set in the near future, I suppose it looked too futuristic to one reader. It was a reasonable comment. Balancing the futuristic elements in the books was a concern of mine. However, I’d had heard that scientists were close to a breakthrough in developing complex, hand-held medical scanner. Behold, I found this story about a Real Tricorder in an article on Yahoo. Click here and be amazed. I didn’t think they were that close to a working model. It looked really cool. Maybe I’ll put that jet pack rattling around in my head in A Soldier’s Fate.

I must make this a short one. Jon needs to get back to work, and so do I. No CSI: Miami rant this week. Next week tells of the loss of a cast member who’s a liar and a traitor. That should give me something to rant about.

Hot Times, Wild Musings and CSI Gets Personal

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.

It’s 91 degrees F (32.5 C) at the beach and it’s not the heat of the day. I didn’t catch Jon’s cold, but the Santa Ana winds or devil winds have all the pollen blown up. Thus, I’m on heavy antihistamines. I’m not responsible for what follows. Or maybe, I’m just less responsible than usual. And the blog will be shorter.

Warning – a somewhat lucid literary discussion below.

Literary Lingo

Jon asked a question about current literature that is considered a ‘great work.’ He postulated books present lit critics consider great works have characters and situations so removed from everyday life that they may as well be genre (fantasy, horror). But lit crits rarely consider genre works great. I informed him that he was preaching to the choir. My friends who teach college lit inform me that the lauded and the hyped meta fiction writers we studied in the 80s are no longer lauded or hyped. I was relieved for the sake of the students who would be spared reading impenetrable prose (Nope, I won’t name names lest I dis a writer that one you wonderful readers considers important. The ensuing fight would be protracted and ugly). But ultimately who is the flavor of the month in literary crit circles is and always has been irrelevant for me. That made me a galling and admittedly difficult grad student. As a writer, all I’ve ever been concerned with was finding a better way to have the voice in my work heard. And that’s what I told Jon to focus on. Writers can be aware of where the market is for their work and generally know how it will be received (Contrary to everything I was taught about them from high school on, Hemingway and Fitzgerald were really aware of their sales numbers). But as artists, it’s always about the work itself. What bad habits can I break? How can I push my craft to a new level? Of course, there are writers who only care about cashing in on the current hot thing. They don’t last past their own lifetime, for the most part (Believe me, they don’t survive. I’ve been processing hundreds of authors who were prolific and apparently sold well in their era. I have never heard of any of these people. And from the sampling of the text, there was good reason that they disappeared). Most of my work is in genre, and I have no issue with how it’s categorized. These are the stories I enjoy telling. I really enjoy them. I know that the memoir will have stories that will be more easily published in mainstream media. And it has all the notes that make for a popular book. But I’m writing it only because I feel it has to be written. Whatever comes from it is irrelevant to the writing of it.

We now return to lunacy.

Conversations with Craig - Animal Edition

Last weekend, there was a story all over the news and the internet about a man who found a lost dog and a sheep near a highway. A good Samaritan stopped and tried to lure the dog in the back of his vehicle to take it to a shelter. The sheep jumped in first. Craig wanted to know why everyone he knew or ever knew him thought he was that man. First, he’s the type that would rescue a stranded dog. And he has an incident with a misplaced sheep. The roommate that he had to buy back from the Mexican Police had left a sheep in the hallway of their dorm. Seems that a huge binge of drinking made stealing a sheep and putting it in the hall very amusing. Craig discovered that sheep really don’t like going down stairs. I think Craig was annoyed that people thought of him as a good Samaritan. He likes to think he has a black soul especially compared to his Ohio born girlfriend. I disagree though the mood ring he wears is always the color black. I didn’t know they were still being made. His is way cooler than the original rings. Anyway, Craig is as kind hearted and generous as my Ohio friends, Bruce and Randy. They’re all good to their mamas. They are wonderfully considerate and loyal friends. And they won’t stand by and let an innocent suffer – not even a stray. Craig hates cats and they generally hate him, yet he liberated a cat named Jello from satanic neighbors (they admitted that) who kept musing about sacrificing the kitty. He thought the neighbors were posers, but didn’t want to take the chance. Thus, he and Jello lived together for over a year hating each other until Craig moved out. The hippie girl moving in loved Jello, so they parted company. He even took the insane terrier, Hamish, to be blessed by the Cardinal. He didn’t want to do it, but his Mom asked. Yep, Craig’s a softie. He’s taken, but my Ohio boys are on the market, ladies.

When Worlds Collide

Spoiler Alert for CSI: Miami

Well, not worlds, my world and CSI: Miami. An actor friend of mine, Garett Maggart, landed a guest spot on the show. I was tickled beyond words. I told him I would be blogging about him. Somehow, he thought I meant writing slash about his character on the show. Geez, you slash a guy’s character a few dozen times and they never let you forget it. Though I did enjoy him reciting his renditions of my slash in a falsetto voice, presumably mine. I’d never want to think about Horatio Cain having sex with anyone. He’s almost the last man I’d want to see naked. Almost. I want to see Gov. Ed Rendell naked even less. I have seen him shirtless when he was Mayor of Philly. He insisted on opening the public pools by diving into one. Looked like he was wearing a black sweater. Where was I? Oh, Garett. Of course, he’d never seen the show. Most actors I know never watch the things they audition for, nor did he read the script beyond his own pages. Much of what he was hearing while being a corpse was new and rather improbable given what he told me of the rest of the show. I told him that was not unusual. He didn’t get any of the hot women of forensics leaning over him with plunging necklines, tight pants an stiletto heels. All he got was Horatio Cain and the balding cop talking over him. But he did get the sunglass scene. But Garett didn’t see it, because he was a corpse at the time. It will air during the Month of Fun for me. I can’t wait. This time, the rant will be personal.

Wool-gathering

I was processing a book at the archive that included a reproduction of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. My mind generally wanders while processing books at work. It’s a process that works best when on auto-pilot. Thus, I write scenes from novels or scripts in my head. That’s been very helpful lately, because it allowed me to finish A Soldier’s Fate even while pressed for time. That day, I was wondering if the Book of the Dead would bring up raging scarabs or Mummy minions. I didn’t even get Ardeth Bay riding through to save me from whatever. Those fanciful thoughts led me to wonder about what may be lurking on the floors below the main floor where we work. We work in a bunker of sorts that has seven stories below the first. They stretch on and on in a same-ness that reminds me of the Umbrella Corp labs in Resident Evil. And with all of those really old tomes, there’s no telling what may have been loosed down there. Jon votes for a Balrog. I think it’s monsters from the id (Forbidden Planet). It’s easy to see that our heads aren’t entirely at work. I get like this before traveling or a shoot. My head isn’t really where I am. I wish I knew where it was. I need it for other things.

Updates

More of the same. I’m pushing on getting the book out. Jon’s finishing the Gunslinger Trailer. Stay tuned.

Spring Flings, Mooks and Band Buses

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.


Spring has Sprung

It’s that wonderful time of year when vibrant flowers are in bloom, and the beautiful young men have shed their coats and shirts to jog in the gentle breeze. I still don’t have a net gun. It’s also a mere two weeks from the 2008 month long celebration of my – ack – 48th birthday. I have been asked how extravagant my plans will be. Not extravagant at all. Most of the treats in May involve the new films coming out (Iron Man, Speed Racer, and Indiana Jones 4 ). Speed Racer is of special interest because it began my interest in anime. You could say that the path to A Soldier’s Choice begins with that cartoon series. The month began early when Jon found a two pack of the last two Bourne films (Supremacy and Ultimatum) for less than the price of the pair of seeing Ultimatum in the theaters. I’ve been listening to it ad nauseum while inputing A Soldier’s Fate this week. I shall be frugal in my celebrations next month. I only plan to buy a couple of exotic ingredients to try some new French recipes from the Anthony Bourdain Cookbook like Soupe de Poisson (strained fish soup) and maybe lobster bisque. The former means buying a whole bottle of Pernod and I’m not sure if I’ll like it. Though I have liked everything I’ve tried in that book so far. Jon and I want to have another whack at making baguettes, but I need to find out if I can freeze the dough. That recipe makes a whole lot of dough for just two people. Why the frugality this year? I want to return to Paris in October for our 10th wedding anniversary. And I have to plan the trip as if there is no film happening on the budget our day jobs allow. I have found an amazing deal on a week long apartment rental in Montmartre. It’s off a lovely little courtyard and has a great kitchen where I plan to cook to my heart’s content with ingredients fresh from the farmer’s market. And it’s near the red light district of Pigalle. We have unfinished business there. Last trip, we were too pressed to visit the Museum of Eroticism (click on that link at your own risk – seriously). That’s an egregious lapse for a writer like me and a twisted guy like Jon. It must be corrected. I sent This photo from Pigalle to Ron Moore of Battlestar Galactica. His response was basically ‘of all the cultural things I could have sent him from Paris, this is what I chose’. How could I not? Thus, I will be frugal in May, but there will be a lot of fun to report.

What Makes the Blog?

I get that question often. Or actually, how in the world do think up that blog? When I’m not talking about writing, it’s just my life and friends who are responsible. For example, I was having a conversation with Craig about the weather in Tucson for the shoot, and ended up hearing a long story about his college roommates there that ended with a the sentence ‘And that’s why I had to buy him back from the Mexican Police.’ And then there was his rant about the Jersification of his Ohio girlfriend that he blames on The Sopranos. I’ve met his lovely girlfriend, and I can’t imagine her using the work ‘mook’ correctly. Now he wants to do a video dictionary on how to speak and understand Jersey speak. It has to be video because there are several nuances on how a guy leans on a car and what each way means. Oh, speaking of Craig, he believes that the one legged cricket is dead, though no body has turned up yet. Thus, my friends are an excellent source. Of course, there is TV and film because I’m a fan and a filmmaker. Work can give me inspiration. This isn’t a caption contest image, but I had to share it. The illustration comes from a compilation of Irish Lit from the 1800s. It’s hard to read, but the caption is ‘A Gentlemanly Caning.’ I usually know early in the week what most of the next week’s blog will have in it.

Head of Many Hats

The great thing about wearing many hats in a Film Production company is that the labor is cheap or free, and there isn’t any time lost with coordinating communication between the many departments that work on a film. The big downside is that when one person isn’t functioning several areas of a project ground to a halt. Jon is sick again. It may be that he never completely recovered from the post shoot cold or flu. Thus, work on a trailer has stalled. The image part is finally finished, and it looks amazing. All that’s left is laying down the sound and music tracts. The trailer should be up by the weekend of May 3rd. I plan to pull stills from this version at some point today. The feature pre-production is on schedule. We’ve got more and more details in place. The only worrisome thing, aside from the blazing heat and biting flies, is the situation with airlines. We can’t afford getting caught in massive cancellations with such a tight shoot schedule. We’re planning a contingency of renting a luxury band – type bus to take the actors back and fourth if something goes completely haywire with the airline. Let see, a busload of actors with a bar. Poor Randy. He may need a whip and a gun and a chair and a top hat.

A Soldier’s Fate

The editor’s have 3/4s of the book. I’m almost finished inputing the final chapter. With Jon sick and behind on the trailer, it looks like the release of the paperback will be the second week in May, but the e-book will be out a little sooner than that. There will definitely be an expansion of Vincent Greven’s Cookbook. This time, a lot of the recipes are actually mine. I really appreciate your patience. I think you will find that the book is worth the wait.

Critics, Cynicism and Miles O'Keefe

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.


Yes, the warning is still necessary. I’ve had a lot of folks find the blog looking for recipes or Anthony Bourdain or info on CSI: Miami. Apparently, they were quite distressed at what they found. Though why they kept reading, is beyond me.

Discouraging Words

Well, not really discouraging. I don’t have a thin skin where critics are concerned. I’ve had my work taken apart in live, public forums in Journalism School and a Graduate Writing program. Some of those professors and classmates were bent on being sadistic in the guise of constructive criticism. And recently, bad reviews have actually spurred sales of more than one of my titles. The latest reader review to turn for A Soldier’s Choice was odd to me. It left me nonplussed. The review wasn’t wholly negative, yet the reader gave it a little less than three stars. That actually annoyed me, because it knocked down the number of stars the book has had for over a year. And in the end, the reviewer said readers would have to try the book to judge it for themselves. That’s not actually helpful for a book buyer, and it knocked down my rating. The complaint from that review and one other was that I don’t spend a lot of time delving into the background of the society that is the backdrop for the story. That was not a mistake or an accident. I developed a complete history for Rik and Vincent’s world. I know how the society works. I even have a time line that traces the Delphi Project from Demon Under Glass to the point it becomes the military’s Altered Program. All of that backstory would be relevant if I was writing science fiction. I wasn’t. A Soldier’s Choice and A Soldier’s Fate are erotic romances that happen to be set in a sci-fi story. I do reveal aspects of the society that are relevant to the characters. I chose to tell the story from Rik’s point of view. That limited, in my opinion, what could be told of the world outside of his personal experience or don’t impact his life. Rik’s concerns are simple in both books: keeping Vincent with him, keeping safe from those seeking to harm them and protecting their loved ones. I felt, and still feel, that any other details does not further the plot and would be a distraction from the main story. Jon and I write our scripts the same way. He likes to say that even bit players with one line have their own backstory, and he he’ll tell the actor what that is to help their performance. But otherwise, who cares? It may be interesting in a DVD extra, but it would slow the action in the main narrative. I feel the same way about my novels.

Speaking of the Soldier’s Books, Here’s the new postcard for the advertising blitz planned for next month. The books are still slated to come out by the end of this month.

Cynicism in Tinseltown

An actor friend of mine who has only known me for about a year told me that I was cynical about the business out here. That brought me up short. I grant that the last year has been a rough one personally and professionally, and I can detect a harder edge in me than was there before. Ultimately, I have to disagree. I may be cynical compared to others he knows out here, but the fact that I’m still willing to listen to people who claim they can help us get a film going is evident that I am far from cynical. As way of proof, allow me to share some highlights of meetings we’ve had since moving to LA.

“Let me get this straight, you want to change everything but the title of the script, but still want to say it’s based on a true story.” That was our first meeting in LA that happened the day after we arrived. During that same meeting, the producers wanted us to lie to the couple on whom the script was based. Oh, and the job they promised that prompted our relocation across the country didn’t exist.

“I want you to consider two words that will guarantee success for your film – Kato Kaelin.”

“Okay, I had your actor checked out, and he’s still a murder suspect.” This was a different actor than Mr. Kaelin. That call from my father included an offer of an airline ticket back to Philadelphia.

“Did you know that the Mystery Science Theater book has a whole chapter on Miles O’Keefe? And since when does he do Science Fiction?

“Yes, I noticed the pentagram necklace, it had to be a foot in diameter. I don’t think I can ignore the painting of Satan behind the receptionist. And was that Martin Sheen we almost ran over?” That was one strange evening. Oddly enough, it was one of the more forthright meetings we’ve ever had. They were crooks, but they were absolutely honest about it.

“Just so I understand, you want a four story set made of glass – even the floors so you can shoot through to the top. I suppose all the women are wearing pants. Space bikinis. Well, that makes it better.” Fortunately, Jon was not at that meeting. He has no guile and virtually no inside monologue. As it was, I nearly took that idiot’s head off.

“I’m sorry, but the last actor I think of to play a character inspired by Errol Flynn is Roddy Piper.”

“I really loved all the performances by the Hobbits, but I just don’t see him as the most dangerous pirate captain in the galaxy.”

“I know that your client is about to win an Emmy and an Oscar in the same year. Why in the world would he take a part playing a nearly mute sidekick?” I was right about him winning both awards, and I was also right that he would not take the part though he really loved the script.

Why even listen to casting murder suspects, former wrestlers, Hobbits and whatever Miles O’Keefe is? They usually came bundled up in a package that included funding or distribution that would lead to funding. Typically, we weren’t told about these packages until we were at the meeting. I think the folks trying to pull these stunts with us believed the temptation of funding would be enough for us to swallow any misgivings. Not so far. And why even take all these meetings? There is always the possibility that there will actually be funding offered in a deal that we could live with. Had I not been open minded and followed up what seemed to be an unrealistic e-mail, Demon Under Glass would have fallen apart before one scene was shot. I remain optimistic that things will work out, and we’ll shoot a film. And I continue, even after more than a decade of strange and sometimes infuriating experiences, to go to these meetings with a positive attitude. If nothing else, they make for amusing stories at parties or blogs. I admit I’ve changed since I moved here, but I don’t think anyone whose known me for some time would call me cynical.

Pop Culture Super-Stardom

I forgot to mention that on the very Sunday that I was ranting about CSI: Miami’s new episodes, they received the highest honor in pop culture. CSI: Miami was featured on The Simpsons. I think they did Horatio Cain justice. They couldn’t come up with a goofier story idea than would be on the actual show, and that was the funniest part for me.

More on Robotic Scorpions and Biting Flies

I found the robotic scorpions, so we don’t necessarily need to use a real one. And they also make non-robotic ones that can be smashed with a gun butt. We’ve finally firmed up the location. It has everything we need along with excessive heat and biting flies. (No place is perfect). Now comes the scheduling alchemy of getting several busy people in the same place at the same time for a number of days. If any of the Skirts know a symbol for that, I’m all ears.

Cow Corpses, Mood Writing and other Ravings

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.


Cow Corpses and Robot Scorpions

The development phase of The Gunslinger continues as we await a start date.

‘Do we still need a cow corpse?’ That began one of my mornings last week. I had to wrack my pre-caffienated brain for what in the heck my partner was talking about. In the many drafts written over many years, The Gunslinger had a scene in which one of the most squirrelly henchmen shoots one of the heroine’s cattle several times prior to attempting to shoot one of her ranch hands. It was going to be a particularly bizarre scene as the actor attached to the part will most likely be shooting at his own father. We had to re-write the scene sans cow corpse because of the insane expense of a fake cow. Those of you who followed the Demon Under Glass shoot know we had a cow in that (I hadn’t realized we had a cow fixation until just now), but the expense was about a third of the film’s tiny budget. We wouldn’t even have a trained cow pretend to get shot. PETA would have a cow. They demanded documentation from the producers of O Brother, Where Art Thou (incidentally, that is a really good and really funny film) that their flying cow was not real. They had to provide step-by-step proof the process of putting the CG animal in the film. We re-wrote the scene sans cow. My partner was relieved, because that would have upended our finely tuned budget. As it was we were surprised that a horse that is standing still is about a quarter of the rental price as one with a rider on it. There are a lot of horses. The other burning question of the day was ‘Have you found a robotic scorpion?’ I confessed to not really looking for one yet. Why even bother with a robot scorpion? Though Travis is game to interact with a real one, I’m not sure the insurance company will be as keen. Though we may do a real one behind glass a la Raiders of the Lost Ark and the cobra. I think we’ll need the robot, because PETA would likely object to the way Shadow Smith disposes of his little morning guest.

Scary Myspace Notes

Under the category of captions you don’t want to read on photos from your leading man: ‘Here’s where I cracked my head open under the waterfall.’ Jon wondered why I was screaming while checking my e-mail. I often scream, but not usually when I’m looking at photos of Travis. He’s fine, but oy the palpitations! Anyway, his photos under the water shirtless prompted me to release my favorite photo from the trailer shoot (gee, I wonder why). You can find it at http://www.myspace.com/hiddenpassions click on Pics underneath the yellow smiley icon. Then, go to Trailer Shoot for a larger version.



Writing Atmosphere

I’m often asked by writers and readers what music I listen to when I write. The short answer is that I don’t listen to music when I write. I get distracted by the lyrics or the memories that the lyrics evoke, and I’m derailed from writing. Jon gets around that by listening to instrumental soundtracks when he write, so the words are distracting him. We have an insanely large collection of soundtracks. That doesn’t work for me. I get to thinking about the film the music is from and then I’m profoundly distracted. I have been inspired by songs or tracks of music. A Soldier’s Choice tone of hope and despair is from the song Rise by Yoko Kanno, performed by. The song Nasty Boys by Janet Jackson looms largely in the first story in a memoir about my mother. For some reason, Extreme Ways, the closing theme for the Bourne films by John Powell, evokes the feel of A Soldier’s Fate. I listen to news when I write or TV shows that I can tune out to background noise. It’s a habit from growing up. The family wasn’t into peace and quiet when I was doing homework. They needed their TV shows. I learned to tune them out. Oddly enough, I can’t do that with music. The other thing I’ve been doing while I write the Soldier’s novels is cooking. Maybe the reason for that is that Vincent cooks. Most days while I work on the book, there is stock simmering or something roasting. The house smells wonderful. I imagine that’s how Vincent’s kitchen would smell like. Today, there is the second attempt on veal stock and a roasted chicken stock simmering. Soon, there will be a sweet potato pie. The homey aromas don’t match the emotional torment I’m heaping on my characters (it’s near the end of the book), but it helps me work.

More Raves than Rants
Warning: Major Spoilers for a whole lot of stuff

Even before I watched the recordings of the double header, CSI: Miami, I was in a kinder, gentler mood. One of the TV shows I was listening to for background noise while inputting A Soldier’s Fate is Inronside, the wheelchair detective, on hulu.com. That show was part of a litany of Detective shows that had an adjective in front of the word Detective like The old Detective (Barnaby Jones), the fat Detective (Cannon), the blind Detective (Longstreet) and the concussion Detective (Mannix). Ironside reminded me just how goofy cop shows were back in the day. Thus, I was more kindly disposed to last week’s lunacy on CSI: Miami. Turns out, it was a fun pair of episodes. There was the silliness of a civilian instigating the extradition of a police official to a foreign country, but the resolution was a delightful surprise. There was Horatio Cain with only one gun and one clip against five, count ‘em five bad guys with guns. While the central bad guy is yacking about what was going to happen to him, Horation takes aim and shoots everybody. And he takes down two more waves of villains before the opening credits! It was actually amusing. The kidnapping of our spook-girl, Calleigh actually made sense in the context of the episode and it made clever use of basic science and forensics in how she helped them find her. I found myself rather pleased. And that wasn’t the only show to top itself. Criminal Minds had a brilliant opening scene that surprised and tickled me. But the best of the week, of course, was the return of Battlestar Galactica. I won’t discuss it here. If you haven’t seen it before, you’d have to start from the mini series to follow my raving. And then there are the huge spoilers that even the most casual comment will cause. So I will say only that it’s not only the best Sci-fi on TV (smart, sexy, funny and complex), it’s some of the best drama ever aired on TV. And it never fails to surprise me in a good way.

Stay tuned for more on the film and the book next week!

Glamorous Life, Food Frenzy and Killing Culture

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.


Someone on my Producer Yahoo list was looking for a trained walrus. I’m glad I’m not in that project. Thus far, no one has come up with such an animal. That’s odd for that list. For us, it’s the end of one of those quiet weeks. Jon was been working on the trailer footage using some program that corrects color timing and erases boom mikes (it has a function for eliminating boom mikes, go figure). We’re waiting for Vic to give us an ETA on the sound mix. My partner Ralph and I are doing logistical things for bringing a shoot to an area that doesn’t have them often. This is really glamorous stuff like calculating whether or not we’ll need a water tanker truck for the trailers (we will because we also have to make rain; will we need a gas tanker to run the trailers and the very important question: how many port-a-potties are needed for the crew and extras and how often they’re emptied. There are formulas for that calculation that you just don’t want to know about. That’s show-biz, dah-lings. Oh, yes, I have to make sure there are plungers. I’ve needed them on two of the three shoots. Guess who gets to be the plung-ee? Don’t feel sorry for me though, I get to see those cute boys shirtless and sometimes even less dressed than that (as shoots wear on, actors get really comfortable and they don’t bother with robes). It’s a fair trade off. What was I talking about? Oh, yes. There’s not much happening this week. I’m saving the most provocative pics for the release of the trailer. Stay tuned.

Food Frenzy

We were mercifully free from the day job an extra day last week. Thus, I had some time to work on more recipes. Making more veal stock was thwarted by the elusiveness of the requisite bones. They were nowhere to be found. However, I tried some spreads I’d long wanted to try as replacements for cream cheese or mayonnaise in some cases. Thus I made a roasted eggplant spread that’s sort of like Baba ghanouj and a green olive Tapenade. My lovely French friends sent me a jar once, and I tried to spread it on everything. Jon had been getting nervous. I finally worked up the courage to make one on my own. It tasted great. And for the cream cheese substitute, I made a Chevre (goat cheese) and roasted red bell pepper spread. There’s a chocolate mousse I’d like to try later today. I’ve made them a few times, but never quite to my satisfaction. I’m ready to give it another whirl.

Speaking of food, I’d been seeing a lot of news stories on the squeeze that Food Banks are trying to get through (not enough donations and sharply increased demand). I found out from one of the food shows I watch that Barilla Pasta was offering to donate one dollar to Second Harvest Food Bank for every Celebrity cookbook downloaded. The cookbook is by Mario Batali and a number of big actors and is free to download. The campaign has raised over 100k so far. Go to Barilla Helps. This campaign ends on the 31st.

Make It Stop!

CSI: Miami is back in all of its goofy glory. But the beginning of the show brought up a subject that has been bothering me for some time – the pervasive hip-hopization of pop culture. The opening was a wedding montage that ended with the lovely bride being shot in the head. All through this montage, some hip-hop music was blaring making the participants appear even more white than they already were. The music just didn’t fit. It really doesn’t fit over the montages of lab activity. I’ll get back to that shortly. This episode essentially was about the attempted murder of a blackmailing stripper. The bride moved after the shot was fired and hit her instead. The idiocy this week was that the killer used and gun mounted to an arm attached to the underside of a Rolls Royce and triggered by a cell phone. I’m not sure how he aimed the thing (that’s probably why he whacked the Bride instead). For Pete’s sake, she was a stripper, not a ninja. Bash her in the head in the parking lot. Next weeks double episodes involve a murder suspect getting Horatio Cain extradited to face charges in Brazil. Didn’t know a regular citizen had that power even while a murder suspect. Meanwhile, our favorite gun girl, Calleigh gets kidnapped by a stalker. TV police can’t help but get kidnapped now and then. We saw an original episode of Burke’s Law that featured the kidnapping of a seasoned detective. Over 40 years and nothing changes. Sigh.

Back to the infection of hip hop. It’s gone on for too long and it has spread too far. I’m not going to get into the content issues. The poverty and anger that is said to have spawned the music has long given way to marketing. And this marketing seems to be aimed at making the performers and their fans look ridiculous. Now, I came of age in the 70s, so I know from what looks ridiculous. I’m seeing well to do young men – UCLA students --who’ve only seen the hood in films and on TV wearing the saggy look and trying to represent outside of their well-appointed frat houses. I won’t even talk about the dancing or attempted dancing by these wanna-be gangstas. It’s ridiculous and it’s spreading to other cultures. During our last visit to France, we were appalled not only to find a lot of French rap (native and imported) on their music shows but also to find wanna-bees on Paris Streets. My favorite was a quartet of teens trying to be big and bad, nodding their heads to the bass beat blasting from a vehicle not much bigger than a smart car. When they nodded at me, I gave them the universal look from a Black American woman for oh-pul-eez. In researching this for the blog, I found even more to cause me chagrin. One of the biggest music stars in France is a rapper named Booba. He seems to have a website called DaddyThePimp.com (oh dear) and a big hit called Pit Bull. I’m not sure why it was set in Moscow or where they found all of those people of color to be extras, and I understood all the French. This must stop before more cultures are harmed!

Aaron McGruder has made a fine start by pointing out just how ridiculous this has become. Our favorite is an episode of The Boondocks on a character called Thugnificent. there is a wonderful excerpt from Youtube on his rise from poverty.

I’m off my soapbox and back to inputting A Soldier’s Fate.

All Things Sublime and Updates

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.


To all of those who celebrate this day, Happy Easter! As it is a holiday long celebrated my family, I’m engaged in many of the rituals I grew up with. So, I’m cooking up a storm and, of course, there is movie watching involved. But before I get to the food and the wallowing in pop culture, I must chat about an extraordinary book I just read.

Subversive and Sublime

A few weeks ago, I mentioned Sarah Freligh’s new book. Well, I read it this week and was completely blown away. Though it is a collection of poetry, it reads like a novel. Here’s the review I submitted to Amazon.com:

Sarah Freligh’s poetry collection, Sort of Gone is as subversive as it is sublime. To say it takes such American icons as Baseball and the 50s American family and turns them on their ear is understatement. She explodes them, and the shrapnel tears the reader apart. It is worth the ordeal to experience the complex lives of these fascinating characters. To Al Stepansky, baseball is salvation. It is an escape both figurative and literally from his sad and abusive household. Playing baseball gives him lofty goals to pursue, then the fame he thought he craved and toward the end of life, his only moments of true happiness. The poetics of baseball is not sort often seen on film and heard from orgasmic sportscasters. Baseball for Al and his father is order in a world that is often cruel and crushing. It is a connection between a parent and child in a fractured relationship. Sarah makes the reader understand how fans and players can lose themselves in the intricacies and rhythm of the game. Even if the reader has never watched a baseball game, the importance of the sport to its fans is easy to see and understand. Sarah accomplishes this with sparest use of words. Her economy and fluidity in driving her love of the game and her keen insight into family, sex, aspiration and disappointment home would be the envy of Al Steapnsky and perhaps to Mickey Mantle himself.

Do click on the highlighted title and buy one!

The Sublimely Bitchy

Jon and I are working on probably the most complicated script character-wise that we’ve ever done. [Yes, we are working on a script while prepping to shoot a film. It’s rare when we aren’t working on a new script] One of the key characters is a very beautiful woman who is a big personality and a big talent. However, she is vindictive and sometimes thoughtlessly cruel to the people she loves. It was a quandary as to how to demonstrate that she had qualities that would make people deeply care about her. So we rented the best bitchy film of all time, All About Eve to see how they handled the queen of all bitchiness, Margo Channing (Bette Davis). If you’ve never seen the film, it’s a must. The dialogue is razor sharp. The performances are complex. It’s an all around good time. And the viewing helped us figure out how this one character of ours should be written. Pulling that feat off is another matter.

The Sublimely Cheesy

Holidays for me are chances to connect with loved ones who aren’t in LA or who are gone forever. To that end, I indulge in the holiday rituals that I grew up with. Well, some of them. I don’t get my hair hot pressed and curled and put on thick leotards and my Sunday best. I like entertaining at home now, because I can wear pajamas. They look more lounging clothes, but they are pajamas. However, I do cook everything that we would always have during holidays. I even dyed Easter Eggs. We used a Spongebob dye kit (it was on sale), and I didn’t do many. And there is far too much candy in a place with only two people and no children coming by. All these things evoke very fond memories of holidays past.

Along with food and visits from our more interesting relatives, we would watch the epic holiday movies played on TV every year. There used to be a vast array of what I called holy movies, but now, there is only The Ten Commandments. When I was young, my brother and I just enjoyed it for the spectacle. My brother thought Yul Brenner’s Pharoh was really cool. He’d walk around for days after saying ‘So let it be written. So let it be done.’ As I got older, I realized that this was one wacky film. Everybody is chewing up the scenery. And then, there are all the really creepy characters like Vincent Price who, if he had one, would have been twirling his moustache in evil glee. Then there’s the inexplicable presence of Edward G. Robinson, who manages to be really creepy and incredible annoying. Why they didn’t leave him wandering in the desert alone, I’ll never know. John Derek wasn’t creepy in the film, but one can’t help thinking of how amazingly creepy he would be later in life. I don’t know when it dawned on me that Yul Brenner’s character was lusting after then married his own sister. But the film is delightfully wrapped in such tasty cheesiness, that it can’t help but be a fun time. Since we’ve lived in LA, Jon and I made sure to watch it with friends and comment all through it a la Mystery Science Theater 3000. A fun time is thus had by all. And I know my Mom would have approved.

The Gunslinger Trailer Update

Jon achieved picture lock last week. We then shipped all the files to the wonderfully talented Vic Mignogna to work on the sound and the music. Vic will be on screen in the feature version as Sheriff Mark Clayton. He seems very excited about pulling a gun on Shadow (Travis Willingham). I wonder if I should worry about that. We’re still on schedule for an April release of the trailer. The date for starting the feature is up in the air because of scheduling issues and a really huge logistical challenge, but we’ll know the where and when soon. Stay tuned.

A Soldier’s Fate

I am inputting diligently, and I’ve found a reliable proofreader. I’ll be shipping the book out in chunks to her as I input them. Thus, then when I finish the last of it, she’ll be close to completing the corrections. We’re still on schedule there. I feel almost organized!

It’s Back!

CSI: Miami is new tomorrow. I will, no doubt, be kvetching about it next week. I can’t wait!

Killer Boyfriends, Jigs and Beer

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.


Soldier’s Fate Excerpt

My apologies for taking such a long while to upload it. I had a very difficult time just choosing something that wouldn’t give any spoilers. Then, I had a harder time getting access to the PC when I wasn’t falling asleep. Jon was editing The Gunslinger Trailer from almost the moment I posted last week’s blog until last night. He’s still not finished, but he was far enough along to take a break. Enjoy! The full novel will be on schedule for next month.

D’Oh!

I’ve received comments noting that I never revealed how the apple pie and other creations of two weeks ago turned out. Boy, am I ever distracted. The apple pie was amazing. The crust was flaky, and I’ve never had pieces that were that picture perfect. Jon ate two pieces as soon as it was ready. The whole pie was gone by Wednesday. I am heartened by the results and will definitely make another apple pie soon. I may also switch to home made pie crusts for the sweet potato pies I make during the big holidays. Yes, I was using store bought. It’s an acceptable time saver when making really big meals, but the result of the crust with the apple pie was so good, that I have to make my own when baking my signature dessert. I made passable veal stock and demi-glace, but I’d like to try it again. I don’t think I strained it enough. I tried the poulet roti (roast chicken) complete with herbed butter. That really turned out well. I’ll try out some of the big recipes toward the end of the month. I’ll pass along the result. I’ll even remember. I’ve been asked about a food blog. I won’t be doing that, but we will be putting up a web site for our families where I’ll have a lot of cooking antics with photos and such.

Holi-daze – March Madness Edition

There are two this month which is unusual. Easter is early this year. The first celebration up is for St. Patrick’s Day. Now, I’ve often had the question about me celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. The comment ‘funny, you don’t look Irish’ often comes up. I would go through the history of slave ownership and wealthy Irish in the US and point out the Irish last names on my mother’s side of the family along with a lot of fair skin and red hair to end the line of inquiry quickly and finally. There are a lot of Irishmen in our family tree. I once joked with a writer friend from there about looking up my ancestors. She said that the shenanigans by her countrymen in the colonies were well known and she doubted anyone would be surprised to find me on their doorstep.

Beyond lineage as a reason, I have another for celebrating St. Patrick. It’s my Mother’s Feast Day. Her name was Patricia, and she loved any reason for celebrating. Yes, Feast Day. Can’t you tell I’ve had twelve years of Catholic school? It should have been apparent. In addition to all that, I grew up in a predominately Irish neighborhood. I learned to do a real Irish jig in High school, for goodness sake. I also learned to square dance. Neither has come up in the decades since graduation. But I digress. The first Sunday dinner I ever made solo for my family was corned beef and cabbage. Thus, I am making one today. I also have Killian’s Red ale, because I can’t find the wonderful red ale I had in an Irish Pub in Paris. Yeah, that seemed odd to me, too. But it was a neat place. And it wasn’t nearly as odd as the gay Australian pub across the street. The only thing that will be missing, aside from Mom, is our favorite film to watch on St. Patrick’s Day, The Quiet Man. It’s one of my favorite films, actually.

I’ll save the Easter zaniness of past and hopefully present for next week. At that time, we will discuss and inexplicable favorite film, Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments. I know you can’t wait.

Romance and Jeopardy

Warning: Spoiler alert for the Bourne films and others.

Jon and I had a debate this week that caused me to look at a certain type of dramatic situation that occurs in romance novels or films with a romance theme. When you have a protagonist who is in a dangerous line of work or embroiled in a dangerous circumstance, how can they hope to keep a lover? The discussion was prompted by my obsession with the Bourne Films. In particular, Jon was arguing that Nicky Parsons, one of Bourne’s handlers who ends up on the run with him in the third film, wouldn’t be interested in Bourne as a lover because he scared the crap out of her in the second film. He was a little homicidal at the time. I disagreed. It was clear in the third film that they had a romantic past and that she was still attracted to him. There’s something about a good-looking, vulnerable but deadly man that really attracts the girls (no, I can’t explain it). However, I thought it was more likely that Bourne wouldn’t allow an affair with Nicky even if he weren’t still mourning Marie. He knows that involvement with him is likely to result in death. He would be extremely reluctant to risk it. I generally don’t write this sort of character. I like my couples to stay together and fight the outside world. That’s true for The Gift of Surrender and its sequel and for A Soldier’s Choice and its sequel. However, that kind of antagonist is in The Gunslinger. Shadow Smith is a killer. And even as he is falling for KD Delaney, he knows that he is putting her in grave danger. His past looms largely in their present and would definitely impact whatever future they can have. He is very sensitive to that. Shadow has a very difficult decision in front of him – stay and hope for the best, grabbing whatever happiness he can have or protect the woman he loves and leave. I won’t reveal anything, I promise. And yes, it looks like the Gunslinger will be a novel as well. I don’t need to sleep.

Conversations I’ve Had – Gunslinger Edition

I don’t think about things I say on the phone until I see the expressions on the faces of people surrounding me at the time. Even Jon has looked at me sideways when I’m on the phone. These are some of the questions and statements that came up in the weeks before we shot the Gunslinger trailer.

“Just how hairy are you?”

“All those buttons seemed liked a good idea at the time, but I don’t see how he can get them undone.”

“You really don’t need to shave that far down.”

“I forgot to ask about tattoos there.”

“The rain barrel will keep that out of view, I think.”

“We can pick up bullets on the say to subway.”

“If they don’t stop, we’ll just keep shooting.”

All of this was totally innocent, I assure you. Really. Here’s an uncorrected screen grab. There are more on the Hidden Passions Myspace page.

Not The Blog! 'A Soldier's Fate' Excerpt

The blog will follow in a couple of hours.

Warning, this contains homoerotic content. It is also un-betaed. Be warned. If you continue reading, do not yell at me.


It was very difficult to find an excerpt that didn't have major spoilers. This may be the last until after the book is published. Once again, it is Rik and Vincent's past that fuels everything they do.


As I hung up the phone, Vincent pressed me back on the sofa while taking the files and notes from me. His eyes were intent upon my face.

“No more phones or messages,” Vincent murmured. “No more anything save for this...”

The kiss was gentle and slow. It was our first time alone after one very long and scary day. He needed connection with me more than sex at that moment. I murmured my pleasure against his lips, pulling him close while hooking a leg around his to keep him close. My lover was unhurried for once, so I lost myself in that incredible kiss. One hand found its way to his hair the other rested on the small of his back. When Vincent pulled back, long moments later, he gently traced the scar along the right side of my face. His eyes were solemn and intent.

“Tell me how this happened,” he murmured. “Please.”

I swallowed hard at the question. A blush rose to my cheeks causing Vincent to frown.

“Rik...”

“I...ah...I saw you disappear that day,” I began haltingly. “You were ten meters away when the portal closed. I shouted...but you were gone.”

“I heard you,” Vincent replied softly. “Thought I’d imagined it.”

“I’d never lost a soldier that way. It hurt so much that you were simply gone. Afterward, anger fueled everything for me,” I continued. “I pushed for an open inquiry into the generals responsible for opening the portals. The anger didn’t dissipate until the new Joint Command was in place.

“But after the anger was gone, the guilt seeped in to take its place. For over a year, I was drowning in it. Six months before you returned, there was a live fire exercise with out allies. I decided to take on some artillery nests that were attacking our side...”

Vincent looked at me sharply. “But that wouldn’t have taken you down unless...”

“Never, ever saw Remak that angry at me,” I replied. “She came on the field with Maximilian during the fighting to drag me to safety. Even Doc Auerbach yelled at me. I was still in the hospital when he approached me about the Foundation.”

“You idiot,” Vincent muttered, exasperated. He kissed me thoroughly. “Didn’t you know I would be back?”

“I knew it in my head,” I replied in a whisper. My voice was failing me. The memories of the pain were still very strong. “But my heart was sick with guilt and grief.”

He kissed me again – no doubt to quiet me. The kiss was hungrier. I moaned into his mouth and arched against his body.

“I can’t tell you how many times I came close to not making it back,” he murmured against my lips. “I was lonely and scared. I’d get careless sometimes just to try to end the constant pain. I couldn’t though with that though. I had to get back to everyone...especially to you. And that scar is damned sexy.”

The next kiss was demanding. I had my lover contained physically, but there was no way that I was in any control of that situation. Vincent made one move, gracefully combining his speed and strength to pull out of my grasp and pin me to the sofa. He shook his hair loose then set about stripping me. He managed to quickly remove my silk pajamas without tearing them despite the urgency I sensed in him.

“I always want to make love to you slowly,” Vincent said softly. His golden gaze roamed over my naked body while he slipped out of his pajamas. “I try to control myself. You know I have great control.”

He was caressing my torso then, absently running his elegant hands over my abdomen.

“Yes, you do,” I managed to reply before gasping. His hands were heading lower. “Deadly control.”

“Not with you, Rik,” he murmured. “You make those sounds with that deep, sexy voice...you purr and you growl and moan...and the way you say my name...”

“Vincent...,” I gasped as he ran his tongue along my collar bone.

His smile was pure evil. “Just like that, Blitz. When I hear that voice, I want to make you moan and gasp and growl. I want to make you lose it. I need to make you lose it for me.”

He was so intense, I almost moaned right then. “Do it, Love...I need you...”

Vincent kissed me then. It was a hot, hungry kiss that made me moan right away. I had control once, too. That vanished whenever Vincent touched me. I didn’t care. His hands and lips and tongue were soothing away the pain those memories from the last two years that were stirred up. Each kiss...each caress put that pain further in the past until all I could think about was how Vincent made me feel – loved and wanted and desperately needed. I yielded to his touch; surrendered to his need. Vincent turned me on my side, prepping me quickly while he tongued the curve of my shoulder. I relaxed for him as he pushed inside me.

“Vincent, Love...please...” I moaned, tilting my head back against his shoulder.

“You won’t have to wait.”

He moved while holding me close against his body. I was pinned and helpless against those powerful hips. I didn’t care. Vincent was moving in me. His breath was hot on my neck. His hand was working on my straining erection.

“Oh...god...Rik...” He gasped as I cried out his name.

Later, as we drifted toward sleep in bed, I held my lover and petted his hair. The livingroom was a mess again. Cleaning would have to wait. It had been too long a day.

“You’ll have more control as you get older,” I murmured. “You could take me over a couple of hours as your experience grows.”

“Maybe,” Vincent replied languidly. “Maybe I’ll always lose control over you. I always have.”

“Hmmm, yeah. You always did,” I chuckled. “But I prefer this way to the yelling and the throwing.”

He chuckled softly. “Me too.”

I yawned then. “Let’s get some sleep. Tomorrow has got to be easier than today.”
Vincent sighed, settling against me. “You always were an optimist.”