Olympia Snowe Op-Ed

In case you don't read the NY Times regularly, here is the much talked about op-ed by Senator Olympia Snowe and her opinions on the current state of the Republican Party as they search for a new home in the Wilderness of Minority.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/opinion/29snowe.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

More Reviews

The Grand Finale- Janet Evanovich

In a book written 15 years ago and recently republished by HarperCollins, Evanovich proves she can write more than Stephanie Plum novels ( not that there's anything wrong with that). She calls it a red-hot screw ball comedy and I'm inclined to agree. She brings the same hilarious sensibility from her other novels to this one as well. You see the evolution of the Stephanie Plum humor happening. While not particularly about anything this book will make you laugh out loud in places and have you rooting around your local bookstore (or grocery store or Target) for the other eight in this genre that she has written. $7.99 feels a bit steep for this small novel so you may want to go and hit up your fav used book store.

Verdict=Fun, short read especially for Evanovich fans.

The Third Circle- Amanda Quick

Amanda Quick (i.e. Jayne Ann Krentz, Jayne Castle) seems to be taken with her new Arcan Socirty that she's whipped together in her two previous novels. She's blending in a little paranormal with her historical. In this latest installment we have a hypnotist and a crystal worker battling good versus evil as usual. It's not that I don't love Amanda Quick, I truly do but I much prefer her other historicals to the Arcane line. Perhaps because paranormal really isn't my thing. But she seems devoted to it to the point where her next JAK novel will be one of the line as well. It's a nice long read, a little shot on romance, a little long on the Arcane Society it's self but it is compelling and at times suspenseful.

Verdict=A must for Amanda Quick fans, especially those that like the paranormal. Not so much for those deeply devoted to her normal line of historicals (Mischief, etc.).

Sorry about the deadline

Sorry I didn't post my reviews when I said I would. My daughter was out of school for spring break and I basically felt like a human chew toy since I was required to entertain her every minute. Then I wrote the review but Blogspot ate it. So here we go again.

For those ten of you who haven't read Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella you might want to consider it. Especially if you have a beach to sit on or just some spare time on yyour hands that makes you want to delve into a surface novel. Personally I think it's a bit of a Bridge Jones rip off. Told in first person in an almost diary style, it does have charm. Unforunately our heroine, Becky, becomes tiresome at best about two-thirds of the way through. Some will think her scams and schemes to pay her creditors back are hilaious. I just found them poor and foolish. I think as a person who grew up not believeing in revolving debt that the idea of someone in her predicament, made by herself is just sad. Not to mention her naievete just grates on one after awhile. But having said the negative, her character is engaging up to a point and the premise is very good. Even the littlte romance thrown in is well thought out and adds a lift to the end. It's a Cinderella story if ever one has hit the stands recently and become a best seller. But I won;t be reading the sequels.

Rating=Pick it up second hand at a used bookstore.


Monsters vs. Aliens. In 3d. 3D is fun. It's been ages since I've seen one and this movie entirely in that format was entertaining if for no other reason. But there were other reasons. Despite some tired and worn jokes, MVA provides a few serious laughs and more than a few snickers. The characters are likeable, the movie it's self beautifully done (as one would expect from Dreamworks) and the voices are familiar and comforting. Fun for the whole family. As long as your kids are old enough to wear the glasses for extended periods.

Rating=Excellent $1 movie material.

Hi! It's me.

I offer absolutely no excuse as to why I've been gone so long. I really don't have one at all. I just wsa but now I'm back. Yeah. I've seen some movies, read some books, formed some political opinions in my time away so I think I have enough to keep you entertained for awhile. Tomorrow I'll be featuring a review of "Confessions of a Shopoholic" (the book NOT the movie) and possibly one of Monsters VS Aliens which I am slated to see thi sevening. In 3D! So until then, thanks for h anging in there.

NaNoWriMo

I've done a diservice to you all and forgotten totally to exploit the fact that this is National Writer's Month. So for those of you who haven't jumped on the http://www.nanowrimo.org/ bandwagon yet, it's really not too late. Well, not too too late. Ok, it's probably too late unless you have a really good idea worked out and it's burning a hole in your brain or something you really truly did start at the beginning of the month. No cheating. Remember NANO is all about quantity not quality but you do no service to yourself by cheating and this is for you personally. But it would only be 3500 words a day or 10 pagesish from here out and that is doable if you really really really work hard. The beauty is you don't have to worry abot spelling errors or whatever else. No rewrites. Nothing. Just GO.

For those who do not know, NANO is a writing challenge that occurs this month each year. It begins Nov. 1 and goes through the end of the month. You are challenged to write 50,000 words (Appr. 170 pages) during the month. You must register and at the end of the month upload your pages to be counted and verified. It's free and it's hilarious. They aren't interested in whether you wrote a publishable novel. It could be a compilation of your blog or anything else that's your desire to write. It's 50,000 words done in one month starting from scratch. It forces you to be on the fly, take chances and really get those creative juices flowing. If you've always thought you might want to write a novel but you didn;t really have it in you and nno one really knew so no one expected anything sign up! If you don't complete the goal no one knows but you.

The Real Story of Interest

In all the New President hysteria it occurs ot me there's a much more interesting story here. Not that they haven't all for the most part been entertaining when reported by Rachel Maddow (every Republican's worst nightmare). I think the most interesting story is that there's a very elderly woman living in a small hut in Kenya in an impoverished little village who is now the grandmother of the President of the United States (Elect).

Writing Contest from Amazon

I grabbed the following off of one of Sherrilyn Kenyon's My Space thingies. The address is http://amazon.com/abna for the contest.



Amazon and Penguin will sponsor a second annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. The competition will launch on February 2, 2009. Between then and February 8, writers with an unpublished English-language novel manuscript can submit their work at www.amazon.com/ abna. As they did last year, PWBill Loehfelm with the grand prize, from a pool of 5,000 entrants. This year, up to 10,000 submissions will be accepted. Putnam published Loehfelm's novel, Fresh Kills, in August 2008. reviewers will participate in the review process. Last year's competition awarded The winner of the contest will be announced on May 22, 2009, and will receive a publishing contract with Penguin, which includes a $25,000 advance.MAN!!


What an advance. To give you an idea, for a first time author, the advance usually falls between $1500-5000. My first advance was $500 and no there isn't a zero missing. This is a fabulous opportunity for the winner.

Muddely Mush....

Okay, so I have this perfectly innocuous little manuscript I was sending in to the GH contest. The thing is to enter the book must be completely finished. Completely. As in they check it randomly because you have to send them a disk of the full ms. So I whip out mine and start reading and it turns out that instead of the finished but not polished script I thought I had? I have a bunch of scenes not really even tied together. I have a bunch of muddley mush as my daughter would put it. What to do? The money is due the 17th of this month but the finished work doesn't have to be there until 12/2. Should I enter it and just write my little heart out or let it slide this year and enter the same one I entered last year albeit with a major overhaul? Or maybe just pass it up all together? Decisions, decisions...It's the $50 question.

The Clothes

Does anyone actually believe the wardrobe is going back?

The Dirtiest Commerical on TV. Possibly ever.

NO, seriously. How did this slide by the sensors? If you haven't caught this on television you need to check it out. On the surface it doesn't appear that over the top but REALLY look at it and listen to the voice over.

Bob is Santa

Is this reverse racism?

I honestly can't tell. My husband is all about this website. I think it borders on ridiculous but here it is.

stuffwhitepeoplelike.com

Red Alert-Deadline

Whatever you do DO NOT FORGET the RWA contest closes on November 17th. It's the big one, people. Polish up those scripts and let's get them in the mail.

GoldenHeart

Notes on YOUTUBE

Naturally they have everything and more. Wayyyy more than we really need. Anyway oen of the things they have IN FULL is a terrific made for TV movie called My Name Is Sarah. It's a romance about a woman who is so lonely she joins AA to make friends (by accident). Just stick it in the right order (I think there are 23 pieces) and let it roll. I swear it's worth it just for the soundtrack. So if you need something light to watch at work while pretending to process Bob Shumaker's tax records from 2003 or whatever give it a try.

Also, if you're a fan of the movie Garden State (which I AMAMAMAMAM) be sure to check out the extended scene in the bathtub. I have no idea why this was cut but it should not have been. I shake my fist at editing. Incidentally, does anyone know the song being playes when Natalie Portman is tap danicing in front of the fire? I know that seems like an odd statement if you haven't seen the movie. If so please mail me and let me know. I don't think it is on the soundtrack and I can't guess which one it is from the credits.

Wild Rose Press

Sent a manuscript off to www.wildrosepress.com the other day. We'll see what happens. It got turned down by HQ for (get this) having 'too much plot'. So there isn;t really anywhere else for the poor thing to go. I understand these people do a lot of business with libraries. Who knows anymore?

I also sent my BABY off to five agents. We'll see if any of them bite. If not it goes out to five more. I'm determined to keep it out to five agents at all times. Surely one of them will deal with it. I've also decided to widen my net. RWA recognized agents aren't the only ones in the world. So I'm looking beyond them and at places like Jabberwokky. Which publishes Charlaine Harris who we know got a mega deal at HBO. So five agents, working down the list it is. I can always send it to a certain agent who has a reputation for repping everything. Sort of a throw it on the wall and see what sticks attitude. I hate that idea but a girl has to do what she has to do and she/he actually did get one of my friends a three book deal once. Which may be the only deal she/he's ever gotten. Don't know. If you think about it, being an agent doesn't really cost them anything. You only stand to make money if it sales. It's sort of like literary real estate.

And the winner is...

My 4 yr old is now insisting ths if we say Obama that we now say 'President Obama". Hope she's correct.

PS Cindy McCain's wardrobe is really starting to bug. Chanel was Jackie O.s trademark. Get your own.

Monday Fun

Hidden Objects Game This one is fairly hard. Enjoy!

Wolf=Zzzzz

We've found the ultimate speep aide for our daughter. CNN. Five minutes and she's out like a light. Try it with your own tot on those fussy, can't get to sleep nights.

The Best Temp Gig In History

I didn't write this but I felt it was worth sticking up here.
It is by a woman named by Kim Peterson.

Congress wants to crack down on CEO mega-salaries for banks participating in the bailout. And while the politicians argue how best to do that, Alan Fishman of Washington Mutual is headed for the doors with $19 million in his pocket.
If that wasn't outrageous enough, consider this: Fishman started the job three weeks ago. I never saw the employment ad Fishman answered, but it must have read something like this:

WANTED: Top executive for train-wreck bank about to be seized by federal regulators. Must be able to look busy while FDIC sells business from under you. Previous experience with angry shareholders sitting on worthless stock a plus. Perks: $7.5 million hiring bonus and $11.6 million cash severance.
Fishman got the best temp gig in history. He gets to keep the bonus and severance pay, though he must stay on the job while JPMorgan Chase completes its purchase of WaMu's banking assets.

To be fair, Fishman wasn't the one that took WaMu down a path lined with toxic mortgages and other bad assets. No, that role belonged to former CEO Kerry Killinger, who received $54 million over five years before leaving earlier this month. He's eligible for around $20 million in severance pay.
Other execs are also cashing in big. President Stephen Rotella gets $12.7 million in cash if he's terminated or quits with "good reason," according to the Portland Business Journal. And CFO Thomas Casey would get a cash severance of $6.3 million.

And WaMu shareholders got huge payments of...oh, wait. The stock is worthless. Shareholders got wiped out.

Take THAT, 'Publics

I received this little nugget of Republican bashing goodiness from the most unlikely of places today....my MOTHER. Yes, she has decided that McCain is too damn old to be President of anything but some antique car club. So enjoy this. Spread it around. Print it out and slap it on the fridge for all your Republican friends to see. Magnify it and make it into a really big bumper sticker.

FYI: It is not noted here but worth knowing that in the twon that Palin was Mayor of that rape victims were charged for their own rape kits and exams. We finally get a woman in a significant place and she's a freakin' nutjob. Why does this happen?


I'm a little confused.

Let me see if I have this straight...

If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different." Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, a quintessential American story.

If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim. Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable. Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 3.5 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience. If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive, a heartbeat away from the top job.

If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian. If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the need for kids to alert someone if they experience inappropriate touching, you are eroding the fiber of society. If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's. If your husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now.

Reflections on the Republican Convention: all the ding dang fabulousness

See I thought there would be nothing to watch last week. With the Olympics over and the Dem convention history I figured it was nothing but stories about absurdly large pumpkins from here until November but I was so very wrong. I got to watch my fair share of the Rep Convention on CNN. Not because I have any real interest but because my daughter was having trouble sleeping but I have found Wolf Blitzer puts her out like a light in minutes. Sorry about that Wolf. Anywho, I followed that up with Daily Show and Colbert which was a scream but candid more than CNN would be on its best day.

First let me tell you about the hootilicious sound bites they found. McCain saying he felt Roe V. Wade was a solid piece of legislation. A few years later he condemned it. Next he proclaimed that our presence in Iraq would be short lived, a few MONTHS later he said that those there in the beginning knew it would be extended. And my favorite? He would not support the Bush tax cut incentives but now? He wants to make them permanent. Hee! Fun stuff. I love it when a man with eight (maybe) houses tries to tell the middle class what they want.

Then how about Rudy. The three time winner of the wedding lottery, pro-choice, had his mistress right out in the open including living in the mayors mansion before he was divorced and told his wife they were getting a separation via press conference? Community organizer was the best he could come up with? What was he doing between the ages of 24 and 27? And does he get some sort of royalty check every time he mentions 9/11? And no, I'm not making light of 9/11 by any means so don't get your panties in a wad. But that was his big spur in the side, Obama didn't mention it in his speech specifically.

And let's talk Cindy for just a minute. She has managed in one of her shiny Chanel suits to deliver to me the funniest sound bite of the entire convention. Hey, let's not stop there, BOTH conventions. Regarding Palins complete lack of any military experience, her response? That we were forgetting that Alaska is the closest state to Russia. No, really. Even for her that's pretty sad. But funny people. All I have to do is think of it and I chuckle even in bad traffic. I forget the many, many times Siberia has threatened to invade Alaska. Hoooo. Did I need the laugh. and what is with those shiny suits? She looks like a road flare.

And now let's talk Palin. She's insane. Policy experience aside. I know that Obama told his camp that her personal life was off limits but I'm allowed to bring it up every five minutes like an egg timer. If you can't be Commander In Chief of your high schooler how can you be potential C.I.C. of the most powerful nation on Earth? Next, what's her plan here? She's going to leave knocked up daughter in Wasilla while she's in Washington, forced to marry some other 17 year old and having a baby? Or is she taking her with her? And either way what sort of mother puts her preggie 17 year old through the international wringer. Talk about throwing someone under the bus. Oh. and the new tidbits that have surfaced. The bridge to no where which she ended up withdrawing her request for but didn't give the money back. The book banning where she didn't actually ban anything but wanted censorship over everything in the library, then firing the librarian as a 'test of loyalty'. And now me fav, her minister is claiming that the attacks of Israel or punishment for the Jews. I can't wait to see how much crazier she gets in the next few weeks. I bet there is militia involved. Oh, and speculation is that she had an affair with one gentleman who for some reason had his divorce documents sealed the day after she announced her VPness. I'm loving it. I'm scared but I'm entertained.

And John McCain? People he's old.