When Music or Movies Make Everything Brighter by Michelle Monkou

We can all acknowledge that writing is a solitary venture. Short of co-authoring, only one person will sit in front of the computer and type the story. But once there, in front of the blank screen, we tend to need things like snacks, maybe music, or even TV. Of course, quite a number of people may need absolute quiet.

I will often write the first draft to music. I have an eclectic taste that ranges from R&B to Pop to Rock, Korean Pop, to classical, and Big Band music. But lately, I found that I’ve been reaching for my favorite movie series to accompany those writing marathons.

My go to selection is J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings directed by Peter Jackson. How can I go wrong with an epic series that is over a gazillion hours long combined. The soundtrack alone is the perfect accompaniment for those long haul moments in front of the keyboard.

Then I move on to Harry Potter series. Now this isn’t really about music, but nostalgia. I know a lot of the key lines and can’t wait for the scenes so that I can repeat them with matching feeling.

Then there’s the Outlander series on Starz, but that is so visually distracting, along with the beautiful lines spoken between the characters that I end up pausing to watch entire scenes. No, I really shouldn’t include this one LOL

Occasionally I will pull out my Twilight series, which I do love. I also have the soundtracks that are just wickedly great compilations.

This last go-round when I had to complete my latest project, Netflix, my new writer’s companion, provided Grease and Dirty Dancing for my viewing pleasure. Not only can I really really go down memory lane, but I can sing at the top of my lungs to every song. And I have no problem stepping away from the computer to do a couple of the dance moves from Grease.

As you can see, my writing can be quite active depending on the playlist or movie list. If you can make writing fun, then why not entertain the other parts of the brain and body.

I hope you’re tapping your foot to a fun beat to make the mundane go by easier or faster, or just to fill the air with beautiful sounds.

All the best,

Michelle Monkou

Michelle Monkou (http://michellemonkou.com) is a multi-published author with over 20 books in print and digital. She’s also a weekly contributor on USA TODAY’s Happy Ever Blog providing commentary on romance fiction. She resides in Maryland writing many more stories to fill the hands and e-readers of romantic bookaholics. Michelle's One to Love is available.

#omgHollyJacobs

I was at Romance Writers of America's conference in San Antonio at the end of July.  I did two book signing for Just One Thing, met with my editors and other publishing people.  And I met up with friends…old friends and new friends.

I met some of those new friends when they were waiting in line for the signing.  And I'll confess, I was a bit shameless.  You see for years, I've bribed people to come over to me at book signings and pretend they were as excited to meet me as they might be to meet…let's say, Nora Roberts.  I  bribed…er, encouraged my new friends to do the same thing.  And that resurrection of my old ways led to this video.

You see...shameless.  It gets worse.  After that, I encouraged people to #omgHollyJacobs on Twitter.   I went around the rest of the conference telling people I was trending.  I mean, ten people hash-tagging you is a trend, right??

Now, I'll confess, I don't think Spielberg is worried about my new foray into movies.  But I'll confess, I had a good time.  And I've already got an idea for a new video to showcase my October book, Christmas in Cupid Falls.  Hey, maybe Spielberg is getting nervous.  I mean, if ten people can be a trend, then a one minute clip might have him worrying that next time I'll try for…two minutes!

There might be an #omgHollyJacobs2 soon.  A bunch of friends (two or three people can be a bunch, right?  I mean, if ten people can be a trend, I think that's about right!) asked if they could send a clip.  I'll keep you posted! LOL

Holly

PS I also brought an extra book home from conference, Queen of Your Own Life.  I'm giving that away, along with a new rerelease of mine, The Baby Gift (that contains Unexpected Gifts).  Just like my Facebook Page/Post.

Grant Me One Favor!

by Anna Campbell

Last month, I was totally self-indulgent and put up some gorgeous fashion photos of the first real supermodel Lisa Fonssagrives (check out the pics here if you missed it, they really are beautiful: http://authorsoundrelations.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/gorgeous-fashion-photos.html).

Very kindly, a lot of you said how much you enjoyed the post so I thought I'd be self-indulgent again and talk about one of my favorite movie stars as a tribute to my late mother.

Part of the reason for this is that yesterday would have been her 84th birthday. So happy birthday, Mum! Here's Cary, just for you! A list of six of the best!

He played with all the great leading ladies and often more than once. I had to start with the wonderful pairing from AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957) with Deborah Kerr. This was my mother's favorite movie. I can't tell you how many times she watched it. It's lush and romantic and witty and elegant and altogether one of the best love stories ever on film. I dare you not to cry!

Alfred Hitchcock loved working with Cary Grant who starred for the master all through his career from SUSPICION in 1941 through to NORTH BY NORTHWEST in 1959. One of the sexiest of those films features a very distinguished, older Cary Grant romancing a smart-mouthed and beautiful Grace Kelly, TO CATCH A THIEF (1955). The scene where Grace scares the life out of him driving like a maniac along the Grande Corniche cliff tops is particularly memorable. Look at that picture. Can't you just feel the chemistry sizzling between them? Just as an aside, my mother couldn't stand Grace Kelly! Thought she was a cold fish.

The next photo down is from my favorite film that Hitchcock did with CG and one of my favorite films ever, the sexy, romantic and passionate NOTORIOUS (1946).There's an amazing kiss scene towards the beginning where because censorship codes forbade kisses lasting more than a few seconds, CG and a luminous Ingrid Bergman kiss each other multiple times for 2.5 minutes, each kiss only lasting a few seconds. Phew! It's a very hot 2.5 minutes! If you haven't seen this film, get it. It's one of the best.

Another pairing of Cary Grant with a much younger actress that created cinematic fireworks is CHARADE (1963) where CG's costar is the radiant Audrey Hepburn. It's a really clever script with everybody doublecrossing everybody else and features some of the wittiest dialogue I've ever heard.

All of these films so far feature Cary in his suave man of the world persona. But one of the many things I love about Cary Grant is that he could play broad comedy better than nearly anyone else I can think of. Earlier in his career, in particular, he displayed his faultless timing and willingness to set himself up for a prat fall in a number of sparkling, uproarious comedies.

I couldn't do a piece on CG and not include BRINGING UP BABY (1938). He was the perfect bumbling, other-worldly, charmingly naive archeologist to Katharine Hepburn's madcap heiress who has a pet leopard, the Baby of the title. Classic slapstick!

I was torn for a last film between THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, HOUSEBOAT, THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY-SOXER and MY FAVORITE WIFE. I ended up choosing MY FAVORITE WIFE (1940) partly because Cary plays a man who finds the shenanigans of the women in his life completely bewildering in so many films, and this picture encapsulates his reactions perfectly.

Cary Grant is about to remarry after having lost his wife seven years earlier in a plane crash. Mayhem ensues when said wife, Irene Dunne, turns up out of the blue, alive. It emerges that she's been stuck on a tropical island with the very dishy Randolph Scott. Brilliantly clever script where every step the characters takes just digs them deeper into the holes they're in. They don't write films like that anymore!

So let's talk old movies. Do you like Cary Grant?
What's your favorite Cary Grant movie? Do you have another favorite male lead from the Golden Years of Hollywood?   

I'm actually going to be off the internet for a little while because I'm attending my oldest friend's birthday party.  I will however swing back to respond to comments late tonight, U.S. time. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Detours–or serendipity : : Anne McAllister

Back in June when my husband, The Prof, and I were returning for a visit to Quebec followed by a few days in Connecticut and New York City, we were scheduled to fly out of LaGuardia one morning and get home maybe six hours later – which considering that we live a part of the world where airline travel is still something you usually drive a car 80 miles to experience – was a pretty good deal.

Or it would have been if the airplane we were scheduled to fly out on hadn’t been struck by lightning on the way in.

We were sooo close to getting on the plane – and then, whoops, the loudspeaker informed us that we would all have to be rebooked.  All 220 or so of us.  I didn’t rush to the ticket counter with at least 100 others. I sat right where I was and called the airline on my phone.

Astonishingly, by the time I got through the phone tree to a real person, we had already been rebooked – to Dallas.

Dallas is about, oh roughly, a thousand miles from where we had been going, which was Chicago. 
“No problem,” the nice lady on the phone told us. “You’ll get there tonight.”

“And the rest of the way?” I asked, because there was a ‘rest of the way’ short flight we needed to take as well.

“Oh, certainly,” she said with terminal good cheer.

Sceptically, an hour later we boarded our flight. To Dallas.

We have a daughter who lives not far from Dallas. I called her from the airport when we arrived and said, “Guess where we are.”  "And, “No, don’t bother to come to the airport. We’re leaving again.”

As indeed we did. And quite amazingly, we got to Chicago in time – barely –to catch the late night commuter flight home.  Clockwork – as promised.

Except for the luggage which had gone straight to Chicago on someone else’s flight and beat us home by several hours.

But the detour, while meaningless in terms of the flight (other than some extra miles on our frequent flyer accounts, brought an unexpected bonus.

We got to watch an in-flight movie we never would have seen otherwise.  We got to watch it in silence because we didn’t have headsets, but it was intriguing enough to make me pick up a copy of the DVD when it came out.

If you have not watched Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, give it a look.  It’s a quiet little film with some interesting things to say, an unexpected hero (played unexpectedly by Ewan McGregor), a heroine who could work in the Good Cheer Department of our airline (Emily Blunt), a seriously handsome Egyptian actor (Amr Waked) who is called the “George Clooney of Egypt” – or so they say, and as the British Prime Minister’s press person, Kristen Scott Thomas, who was perfect and perfectly funny.

It looked good without the dialogue. It was better with.  And we had dinner last night with friends who live in Oman who had seen it there and were equally impressed. 

I doubt I’d have picked it up without my ‘detour’ to Dallas.  I’m so glad I went there now!  Let me know what you think if you’ve seen it.  And if you haven’t, take a chance on it. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. 

Anna Campbell: Spiffing Speech

by Anna Campbell

I used to be a real movie maven. For many years, I worked and lived either in or near a big city centre and most weeks I used to turn up to several movies in the cinema.

These days, things are different. I live in a very pretty part of Australia but it's regional. There is a cinema fairly close but it's a pain to get to and by the time I've realised something is on that I want to see, it's gone. Lots of films and only a few screens mean runs are necessarily short. And there's not the variety I loved when I lived in Brisbane or Sydney.

These days, I see most of my movies when they come out on DVD.

So because of this, I must be about the last person on the planet to see THE KING'S SPEECH. Oh, me and that nomadic shepherd in Bhutan - the famous 2011 Himalayan Mail Strike over Macs for Yacs means he's only just received his copy. I hear he's hoping to get to it this weekend!

By the time the DVD for THE KING'S SPEECH turned up, I'd heard the hype, I'd seen the awards shows and all my friends had told me how much they loved this film.

All round, a disaster.

There's nothing worse than burdening a book or a film with expectations that can't possibly be fulfilled. I was absolutely positive I'd sit down to watch it and decide it was completely overrated. It happens to me often with films that are completely over-hyped.

That's NOT what happened this time.

Instead I was completely transfixed.

What a marvelous film. It moved me to tears, it made me laugh, it convinced me I was peeking into a real world, not actors on a set. Brilliant stuff.

Colin Firth has very rightly collected honors everywhere for his brilliant portrayal of King George VI (and for me to forget it's CF, that has to be a mind-bogglingly good performance), but I thought both Geoffrey Rush (yay, Aussie!) and Helena Bonham-Carter were equally good in perhaps not quite such attention-grabbing roles.

Everything was right about this film. The look. The tone. The emotional arc of the characters. And most of all, it had so much heart. I really felt I'd lived through this time with those characters and my life was richer for it.

Can't say much more for a film than that, can you?

I think a lot of the credit for that can be given to writer David Seidler who stuttered as a child and who had a lifelong ambition to bring this amazing story of Lionel Logue and his royal client to the screen. David Seidler's life story is terrifically moving too and a wonderful story of triumph over adversity too - here's the Wikipedia link.

So did you love the King's Speech? What's the last great movie you saw? How do you see most of your movies these days?

The oh-so elusive perfect romantic comedy movie...

I've been writing up a storm recently and having sent off my latest story to my ed I'm crashing down and out while waiting for her thoughts. And needing distraction so I don' t panic about what her thoughts might be!!!
My eyes are tired so I'm not going to lose myself in a book, but go for a movie instead and I'm hoping to find a really, really, good romantic comedy. One where the dialogue is sharp and sassy and you're just rooting for them to get together because you're know they're so perfect for each other but there are a zillion impossible blocks and knocks to stop it all from happening...

But I think a really great rom-com is so hard to find!!! I wander down to my DVD store and stare hopelessly at the shelves - maybe pick something I haven't heard of (which in general isn't a good idea) or think about watching a perennial favourite again but get snarky because I want something NEW.

You ever have this problem???

So how about some research - here are some of the highest grossing romantic comedies:

• Pretty Woman
• Tootsie
• There's Something About Mary
• Jerry Maguire
• As Good as it Gets
• Runaway Bride
• My Best Friend''s Wedding
• Sleepless in Seattle

Yeah -- they were good. Trouble is, I've seen them all. And notice how rom-coms hardly ever hit the best movie Oscars list? The last winner I can think of is Shakespeare in Love and that was back in 1998! Why is that do you think? Because the good ones are soooooo good and we definitely need more of them...

I did see The Proposal recently and thought that was fun - I thought it was interesting to see how they ensured he was Alpha enough for her even though she was the boss...

But since then? I'm missing some, right? Please tell me I'm missing some? Come on and help me out here, what's the best rom-com flick you've seen lately???? I need one now!

Hmmm... You know, thank GOODNESS there are so many wonderful books out there - because I might just have to go read one of those instead...

Meanwhile, if you're hunting for something to read, I've a couple of stories out at the moment (sorry shameless plug bit) - if you're in the US you can pick up Hot Boss, Boardroom Mistress - which is a very hot reunion tale, or if you're in the UK you can get CAUGHT ON CAMERA WITH THE CEO in advance from the M&B site - and yep, they're caught in a super-hot scene! Of course, no matter where you are, you can get them as e-books! So easy!

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Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner!

by Anna Campbell

I was really saddened recently to see that Patrick Swayze had passed away at the tragically early age of 57.

For me, he will forever be the wonderful Johnny Castle from DIRTY DANCING, one of my favorite movies ever.

I can't tell you how many times I've watched this movie. I can't tell you how many times I've giggled at "I carried a watermelon" or cry in numerous bits of the film, most notably the ending. With its famous "Nobody puts Baby in the corner" line. Sigh! What a man!

This is a film that really touches a chord with a lot of the women I know. Perhaps because many of us identify with Baby/Frances. Perhaps because she fulfills so many fantasies for geeky girls.

This is a classic Ugly Duckling story. Frances is the plain, intellectual sister who hangs in there, takes risks and eventually wins the prince. Not only that, she gets to dance at the ball as the star of the show. And her prince who at first seemed completely beyond her reach recognizes her for the wonderful woman she is.

It's also a classic coming of age story. Baby starts out young and awkward and by the end, she's ready to fly. Literally! Who can forget that shot of Johnny lifting her high in the air at the end of the film as everything around her erupts into a dance of joy? Fantastic stuff! I always want to cheer at that moment.

I think the emotional arcs in this film are pitch perfect, which is perhaps another reason why it's such a favorite with audiences. Johnny goes through his own emotional journey - he gradually stops being the almost godlike creature of Baby's crush and turns into a real man with uncertainties and wounds and unexpected strengths. We realize by the end that she has given him as much as he's given her.

And isn't that a perfect love story?

So are you a DIRTY DANCING fan? If not, what's your comfort movie?

Marvelous Movies - Anna Campbell

by Anna Campbell

As those of you who visit my website know, every month I do a column called My Favorite Things. It's pure self-indulgence, really, but it gives me a chance to write about stuff I like. Among an assortment of topics, I talk about places I've been and books and movies that are particular favorites.

The last two months (March and April), I've been talking about movies. March's topic was THE BIG EASY which is such a great romance and so much fun. And April's is THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS starring Daniel Day-Lewis and his flowing hair. An absolutely magnificent film and one I'd highly recommend if you haven't seen it.

You can see what I said about the film here. And also feast your eyes on some yummy pictures - love this one of him staring stalwartly into the distance! You'll also find links back to previous columns, including a list of my top 11 favorite films.

I thought it might be fun to think of my top three films - for today that is, as this list tends to change hourly if not daily! If you ask me tomorrow to name my top three, you'll get a different answer.

But today, the first of my favorites is LAWRENCE OF ARABIA which is where that spectacular still at the top of this blog comes from.

I was lucky enough to be living in a major city when the restored version of this masterpiece was released in the cinemas. I think I went to it about ten times. It became a bit of an obsession. But the chance to see that magnificent photography in 70mm as David Lean intended and to hear Maurice Jarre's haunting score in full surround sound was too precious to waste. I've always had a soft spot for Peter O'Toole and my crush was reawakened big time, seeing his wonderful performance over and over again. Mind you, Omar Sharif isn't exactly tough to look at in this film either.
My next film is a real girly classic. DIRTY DANCING! Nobody puts Baby in a corner! This was another film I went to see a couple of times in the cinema although it works much better on TV than LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. This is a wonderful coming of age story about two people who are so much more than they realize they are.

What works for me in this film is that for all its fantasy elements, it's very real. The relationships have that awkwardness that real relationships have. For example, I always cry when Baby/Frances finally confronts her father on the porch in the rain. They love each other so much which is why they manage to hurt each other so profoundly.


The last of my short list is an oldie but a goodie. THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR was made in 1947 and it's one of the most poignant, magical romances I know on film. Gene Tierney is luminous as young widow, Lucy Muir, who moves into a haunted house on the English coast. Rex Harrison was never so warm and human as he is here, playing the ghost of sea captain Daniel Gregg. Quite ironic, really. But he makes the most wonderful romantic hero in this film.

On my website, I make the comment about THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS that one of the most compelling things about the hero in that film is that he knows he's met his destiny the moment he lays eyes on the heroine. There's a similar dynamic in THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR and it works in spades! But of course, a ghost and a living woman can't have a happy ending in this life, which is where the heart-wrenching poignancy comes from.

If you haven't seen this film, get it. It's breathtakingly romantic and I bet you cry at the end. I always do!

So what are your three favorite films and why? I'd love to hear your lists!