We are firmly in fleece weather now which has me wearing three layers of clothing — inside! I’m SO ready for spring. It’s another of those code, wet, dark winters that just seems to make the season seem to last forever. Bleh. I saw the forecast for the coming week, and one night we’re supposed to get down to 12 degrees. Double bleh.

So, did anyone else watch the Golden Globes. Let me say, TiVo makes watching an awards show much nicer. You can fast-forward through not only the commercials but the parts you don’t want to see, whether that’s categories or long-winded acceptance speeches. My favorite moments of the night included Kate Winslet being so happy to win for her role in Revolutionary Road and how she not only told her husband, Sam Mendes, how much she loved him but also her co-star (from RR and Titanic), Leonardo DiCaprio; so many people being happy for Mickey Rourke winning for his role in The Wrestler; and the enthusiasm of all the people associated with Slumdog Millionaire (I don’t think they stopped smiling ear to ear all night). Also of note, I haven’t seen any of these movies yet. The most poignant moment for me was when Heath Ledger won for his role in The Dark Knight.

Woohoo, I’m feeling great about the writing this week. I know the words flowing onto my computer screen are not perfect prose, but they’re good enough to be fixable on revision. Right now is just about getting the story down on the pages, turning my 28-page synopsis into a 240-page book. I had set daily goals for myself, and honestly Christmas and New Year’s put me behind that self-imposed schedule. But I’m well on my way to catching up because…yesterday I wrote 23 pages, and today I wrote another 20! Did I mention this makes me happy?

I watched Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 tonight. Cute, though they mashed parts of books 2, 3 and 4 into one movie. Felt a tad disjointed, but I think that was because I’d read the books. I wonder if it seemed that way to someone who hadn’t. Also interesting that now all four of the girls have had TV shows where they were a lead: America Ferrera (Ugly Betty), Amber Tamblyn (Joan of Arcadia), Alexis Bledel (The Gilmore Girls) and Blake Lively (Gossip Girl).

That’s what will be happening beginning in the morning. I have grand plans to write like a mad woman this week. I’m hoping for 15- to 20-page days, but we’ll see what happens.

I’ve been catching up on reading RWRs (Romance Writers Reports) this weekend while watching some movies to get them off the TiVo. Yesterday, I watched How to Deal (based on the Sarah Dessen YA novel, cute) and The Core (enjoyed it, glad it didn’t suck), and today I watched Enemy at the Gates (enjoyed, think Jude Law is total hottie) and Dragon Wars (a perfect example of why Sci Fi should NOT make movies; only watched it because Jason Behr from Roswell was in it; don’t waste your time).

I’ve also been doing well so far on exercising every day this year — at least 30 minutes of walking every day so far. Woohoo!

The holiday — both Christmas and a spur-of-the-moment trip to the beach — torpedoed my blogging, but I wanted to get in one more post before the end of 2008. Last year, I started keeping track of all the books I read and movies I watched during the year, and I did the same this year. Check out my lists before. Did you read or see any of the same ones? What were your favorite books and movies of the year?

Books I Read in 2008:

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman (young adult)
Trouble in Tennessee by Tanya Michaels (romance)
The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (young adult)
The Bleeding Dusk by Colleen Gleason (romance)
Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith (young adult)
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (young adult)
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr (young adult)
Remembered by Tamera Alexander (inspirational romance)
Ready or Not by Meg Cabot (young adult)
Arctic Tundra: Land With No Trees by Allan Fowler (nonfiction/research)
When Twilight Burns by Colleen Gleason (romance)
Graffiti Girl by Kelly Parra (young adult)
Our Living World: Earth’s Biomes Tundra by Barbara A. Somevill (nonfiction/research)
Treasures of Alaska by Jeff Rennicke (nonfiction/research)
The Host by Stephenie Meyer (fiction)
Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson (young adult)
Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles (young adult)
Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (young adult)
Northern Lights by Nora Roberts (romance)
Glass Houses by Rachel Caine (young adult)
The Dead Girls’ Dance by Rachel Caine (young adult)
Texas Heir by Linda Warren (romance)
Midnight Alley by Rachel Caine (young adult)
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory (historical fiction)
The Legend of Zoey by Candie Moonshower (young adult/children’s)
Claiming the Courtesan by Anna Campbell (romance)

I watched 125 movies or TV series on DVD this year. I can’t figure out how to copy them from my Excel file to here, but among my favorites of the year (either released in 2008 or just watched on DVD) were:

3:10 to Yuma
The Bourne series
Stardust
North & South (the BBC production)
Howl’s Moving Castle
Roswell (all three seasons)
Miss Potter
Becoming Jane
27 Dresses
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Juno
Enchanted
The Other Boleyn Girl
Wall-E
Hellboy
Dead Man Walking
Tears of the Sun
Penelope
The Dark Knight
Waitress
Twilight
Wanted
Hancock

There are several movies coming out in 2009 that I want to see. Among them are X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Star Trek, The Watchmen, Terminator Salvation, Night at the Museum 2: Battle at the Smithsonian, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and the third in the Underworld series, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, which is due out in January. Here’s the trailer:

When hubby and I were in college, we got into reading the X-Men comics. There was a comic store right next to campus, so he’d go get the new issues as they arrived. I hadn’t been a big comic reader prior to that, but I totally got hooked on those. So when the X-Men movies came out, I could barely wait for each new installment. Now I’m anxiously awaiting a new one, the origin story for Wolverine, once again played by Hugh Jackman. The trailer just came out a few days ago, and it looks awesome! Wolverine and Sabretooth are back, though now Liev Schreiber is playing the latter. You can see snatches of other characters from the comics, including a Storm as a toddler. And finally Gambit is in one of the X-Men movies! I can’t believe it’s taken this long to get him in one. Bonus — he’s played by Taylor Kitsch from Friday Night Lights, who just happened to be the model for a secondary hero in a YA I wrote and hope to sell. And if that one sells, I play to have a sequel in which he’s the primary hero.

Anyway, here’s the awesomeness of the trailer.

Hola, peeps!

I’ve been so busy the last few days, I’ve not managed to blog. Monday, I drove to Virginia. Tuesday, I took the train into New York City and saw the play Wicked with my agent. It was fabulous! We both loved it, and I was singing some of the songs for the next few days. If you get the chance to see it either on Broadway or with the touring company, go!

Wednesday, my agent and I met my two editors from Razorbill, my young adult publisher. My main editor’s office overlooks New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty. How cool is that? We had a good lunch and chat about business and just fun chitchat. My agent had some other meetings, so I went back to the hotel and worked. If it hadn’t been so brutally cold and windy, I would have gotten out and done something during the afternoon. But it was just miserable outside.

Thursday, I caught the train to Washington, D.C., for the RWA board meeting, which we just finished up about 6 p.m. tonight. In celebration of being finished for this time and having waited forever to see it, three of us from the board (Stephanie Feagan, Sara Reinke and moi) along with my good friend Michelle, who is from the D.C. area, took the Metro to a movie theater and saw Twilight.

I’ve been eagerly anticipating this movie and wasn’t disappointed — at least no further than with any book adapted to screen when you wish the movie was longer so you could see more of the story you first fell in love with. I know there have been criticisms of it and some of the actors, but I was pleased. I wish Jasper had had more dialogue because he’s getting some bad chatter for his acting ability, but he just didn’t have many lines and his expressions were what they were to express he’s the youngest of the Cullen vampire clan and struggles the most with not attacking humans. You could see him physically holding himself back, trying not to inhale Bella’s human scent. Jasper is one of my favorite characters, so I hope to see more of him in the upcoming movies. I read that the second in the series, New Moon, has already been greenlit. I’m happy to see that Twilight has made close to $75 million this weekend, ensuring follow-ups — unlike the first of what was supposed to be another series based on books I liked, The Golden Compass.

Anyone else see Twilight? What did you think?

My fabulous friend Mary, who writes as MJ Fredrick, has a new release out, a fun story with a hunky cowboy hero. So I decided to do a little interview with her about her new offering, Bull by the Horns.

Q. You write wonderful heroes, but Taylor in Bull by the Horns is your first cowboy hero. What made you decide to write about a cowboy?

A. My critique partner, Linda, challenged me to write a novella. I’ve never written anything short, and she thought it would help me with plotting. She challenged each of us to write a story for the Wayback Texas series at The Wild Rose Press. I got the idea and ran with it, including a character from Linda’s story, and I’m the only of the three of us who completed the story! Linda’s is sooo good, too. If only she’d have time to write it!

Q. Why do you think cowboys are such a popular hero type in romance novels?

A. I think it’s because they’re untamed. They travel from place to place, and women like to imagine they’ll be the one to settle a cowboy down. And they live by their own code. They treat women with respect, are forthright and hardworking. That’s what drew Taylor to this life, anyway. Also, they seem to long for a simpler time, and I know that’s been my own feeling lately.

Q. Who are some of your favorite fictional cowboys — in books, on TV or in films?

A. When I was growing up, I spent Saturday afternoons watching Roy Rogers and El Chapparel and Gunsmoke. I kind of grew away from the genre until the 1980s, when Young Guns brought them back for a bit. Paden from Silverado is my all-time favorite cowboy. I love that movie, I love how stoic he was, how determined to do the right thing.

Q. If they made a movie of Bull by the Horns, who would you like to see cast as the leads?

A. Taylor is absolutely Taylor Kitsch from Friday Night Lights. I actually had real person in mind for Lavender. Maybe a heavier Christina Applegate.

Q. What are you working on now?

A. I’m writing my very first historical for Nano. I got the idea three days before Nano started, after having plotted a romantic suspense to write during November. I was teaching my class about Jane Long, who defended a fort all winter long with just her servant and babies for company, and I thought that was amazing. I pictured a man riding up to the fort and falling out of the saddle, and she has to nurse him back to health. I’m having the best time with it, but it certainly is challenging, trying to avoid modern sensibilities in a historical novel. I’m having to learn so much!

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I know I for one can’t wait to read the historical, which was my first love as a romance reader.

Okay, readers, you can get your virtual little hands on Bull by the Horns by downloading it at the Wild Rose Press site here.

I used a Barnes & Noble gift card to buy the soundtrack to the movie Twilight today. It’s awesome! It’s a combination rocking songs, softer ballads and folksy tunes. I was only familiar with two of the bands, Linkin Park and Collective Soul, ones I already liked. And it introduced me to some new acts that I’m enjoying.

First up on the CD is the band that Stephenie Meyer loves, Muse. Appropriate band name for a writer to like. Their “Supermassive Black Hole” makes me want to get up and dance, as do quite a few of the songs on this soundtrack. The second song is “Decode” by Paramore, which I just discovered is from my neck of the woods. Maybe I’ll be able to catch a show if they’re playing in town. Paramore is a punk-pop quintet, and they have a second song on the soundtrack, “I Caught Myself.”

Other acts who contributed are The Black Ghosts from the UK, Blue Foundation from Denmark (two more European bands to add to my list), Mute Math, Iron & Wine, and Perry Farrell, frontman of Jane’s Addiction. Rob Pattinson, who plays Edward in the movie, even sings a ballad called “Never Think.” The CD ends with an instrumental track called “Bella’s Lullaby” by Carter Burwell.

I’m glad I got the soundtrack prior to seeing the movie so I can be familiar with the songs already when I hear them in the movie. Only 11 more days until the movie hits the big screen!

I went to see the folks today, and during my many hours in the car I listened to a couple of PotterCast podcasts. I was excited to hear there was a new international teaser trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which is set to be released next summer. I just watched it online and have to say the movie looks like it’s going to be fantastic! Check it out.

I recently received Entertainment Weekly‘s Fall Movie Preview issue. You might have heard about it because the cover story was for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince but the week before (after EW had gone to press), the release date was changed from this November to next summer. Oops. The good news is that with that change, the release of Twilight, the movie I’m looking most forward to this fall, has been bumped back to 21 rather than Dec. 12.

Here are some of the other movies highlighted that I’m looking forward to. Most of these will be Netflix rentals, but I definitely want to see Twilight and probably Australia on the big screen.
Appaloosa (9/17) — starring Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris, Jeremy Irons and Renee Zellweger; a western — I love westerns.

The Duchess (9/19) — starring Keira Knightley

Blindness (9/26) — starring Julianne Moore, Gael Garcia Bernal and Mark Ruffalo

Body of Lies (10/10) — starring two of my favorite actors, Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe

Quantum of Solace (11/7) — Daniel Craig as James Bond

Australia (11/14 — hey, that’s my anniversary) — starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman

Bolt (11/26) — animated, with the voices of John Travolta, Miley Cyrus and others

Revolutionary Road (12/26) — Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet on screen together again!

Marley & Me (12/25) — based on the book, starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (12/25) — starring Brad Pitt

Defiance — starring Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell

What fall releases are you looking forward to?