I saw an article online today listing the TV series that have been canceled for next year. I have an abysmal record of liking shows that end up getting canceled, so it wasn’t a surprise that I watched nine shows on the list:

Moonlight (the one I’m mourning the most)
Men in Trees (I’m just going to firmly believe that Patrick and Annie would have gotten back together.)
Jericho
Back to You (I thought Kelsey Grammar and Patricia Heaton were funny, but I guess not enough other people did.)
K-Ville  (no more Cole Hauser, sniff)
New Amsterdam
Life is Wild
Bionic Woman (Poor Will Yun Lee keeps getting cast in shows I like but which are canceled; he was in Witchblade too.)
Journeyman

This list didn’t even include Blood Ties (which I’m also mourning; come on, leave me ONE vampire show), which had been previously canceled.

I wonder which new shows in the fall I’ll like and thus be the kiss of death for.

As this year’s shows wind down with finales, my TiVo’s to-do list was getting pretty short. (I think the only things still on it are LOST, Battlestar Galactica, Deadliest Catch and The Alaska Experiment.) So I went through today and scheduled some movies I hadn’t seen. Maybe I’ll have time to watch them after I meet my YA outline deadline the first week of June. I still haven’t gone to see Prince Caspian either. Maybe I’ll do that on my birthday or as a treat after I meet my deadline.

Luckily my choice in friends is more successful than my choice in shows, including the fabulous Beth Pattillo. She’s guesting over at the Romance Bandits today in celebration of the release of her new book, The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society, this week. Swing by and say, “Hi.” She’s giving away a copy of the book to one lucky person.

Moonlight was back after an extended, writers’ strike-induced break, but it was well worth the wait. I’ve blogged before about how I like vampire shows, so it was a fun fan moment at the end of tonight’s episode when two of those shows had a bit of an intersection. During a scene between Mick and Beth, “Lucky” by Biff Naked started playing. I recognized it from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Album soundtrack. Of course, when the episode was over I had to fire up iTunes and play the full version of the song.

In other TV news, the last two weeks of Survivor have been wild. Last week’s blindside of Ozzy was a brilliant strategic move. Ozzy was one of my favorite players from his original season. While I still liked him, at least the editing made him seem cockier and full of himself this time around. Then last night, another blindside of someone sitting with the immunity idol but not playing it. Poor Jason was just lied to and lied to. I never understood why everyone disliked him so much, and I was pulling for him. Alas, the bitchy patrol got together and ousted him. Those girls have got to realize that everyone on the jury is totally ticked at them. Of the people left, I’m rooting for Erik first, then Amanda, then Cirie, then James. I’d love them to be the final four, would love to see the other three girls voting out one after another over the next three weeks.

So, yesterday could have been called Adventures in Mowing for me. Hubby normally mows the lawn, but he’s been traveling a lot for work. I’ve only mowed one before in my life, and that was just the front yard. Yesterday, I decided to be ambitious and mowed both the front and the back, all while wearing an oh-so-stylish surgical mask because of my allergies. I seriously hope I sweated off about ten pounds because I was pooped when I was done. I’m doing this with a push mower, people. I came away with sore hands and two blisters on the insides of my thumbs, but I felt oddly good to have tackled the lawn and won. But I think I’ll leave the weedeating for hubby.

And finally, in writing news, I finished up my second round of revisions on Heartbreak River. All I have to do after posting this blog post is to do a spell check and then e-mail it to my editor. Wahoo!

I’m working on an essay for Benbella Books, for a compilation they’re doing for their SmartPop series on the show Supernatural, my favorite show on TV. So, I’ve been re-watching the first two seasons, taking notes to support the theme of my essay. It’s interesting what you catch when you’re watching something analytically versus just for fun. And though I already knew it, it’s striking me again just how good this show really is — great writing, great acting, totally fun and believable relationship between the brothers. Thank you, Eric Kripke!

I was talking to my husband yesterday about how different our TV viewing choices are. I like certain shows and don’t want to miss a single episode. That’s because I like shows that have a developing story arc over time. If you miss an episode, you miss a valuable part of the arc. Hubby, on the other hand, watches programs at random as he’s surfing, stuff you can miss and it won’t matter. For instance: Me (Supernatural or Moonlight) versus Hubby (South Park or The Colbert Report). I think our viewing choices are also reflected in our reading choices. Hubby watches Book TV on C-SPAN on the weekends, which makes sense because he’s almost exclusively a nonfiction reader (and really smart dude). I like shows that have stories to tell, just like my preference for fiction. I do think I’m more likely to read a nonfiction work than he is a fiction work, though he will be reading my published books — good hubby that he is. Same goes for TV. I’ve watched some Book TV, and I really enjoy The Daily Show. But I don’t see hubby giving in to weekly watching of Bones anytime soon.

The winner of the following books from last week’s drawing is Jane. Congratulations! Contact me via the Contact page on this site with your full name and mailing address, and I’ll get these books out to you.

Rogue Soldier by Dana Marton
The Wastrel by Margaret Moore
The Wicked Truth by Lyn Stone

The books up for grabs this week are:

Pratt’s Landing by Martha Kirkland
Another Woman’s Son by Anna Adams
Please Remember This by Kathleen Gilles Seidel

All you have to do to be in the running is comment on a blog post this week.

Anyone out there watching the new show, New Amsterdam? I’ve seen all three episodes that have aired and like the mixture of detective show with a paranormal element (a hero who can’t die until he meets the one woman whose soul is meant to be with his). Considering I like Moonlight and Blood Ties, it’s not really a surprise that I’m a fan of the paranormal detective show. I like how John Amsterdam has flashbacks to scenes in his rather extensive past, to occurrences that somehow fit in with whatever he’s going through in the present day. And I think it’s funny that he’s always telling his partner, Eva, how he did this or that 300 years ago or how he stormed the beach at Normandy and of course she doesn’t believe him. Personally, I like the theory that Eva is the one and he won’t figure that out for a good long time.

No shock here, but my life of revisions continues. I got through three chapters over the weekend and three chapters today. Six to go, then I need to do a complete read-through to make sure I’ve not missed anything in my editor’s revision letter and that I don’t have any continuity problems because of changes I made. All before Saturday!