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?

I finally made the time to go see The Dark Knight. I know, eons after a gazillion other people have already seen it. But it came out right before I left for San Francisco, and let’s just say I’ve been really busy since then. But my mom is visiting and her birthday is coming up, so off we went to the theater. With popcorn, hot dog, nachos and drinks in hand, we made our way to our seats. When the previews started, three were ones I’d already seen online but were really cool on the big screen and for movies I want to see — Twilight (CAN’T WAIT!), Watchmen, and Terminator Salvation. Another was one I hadn’t seen, Body of Lies with Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio, both wonderful actors.

I’d heard all the buzz about how Heath Ledger should be nominated for an Oscar posthumously for his work as the Joker, but even though I know he was a fantastic actor and had been nominated before (for Brokeback Mountain) I had to wonder if the speculation was a product of his sad and untimely death. I no longer think that. He immersed himself in that role so completely, it was freaky. Freaky in a wonderful acting sort of way. I hope he does get the nomination, and I hope he wins. And if he does, I’m sure I’ll cry because part of me still can’t quite believe that he’s gone and I’ll never see him in another movie.

The fact that I really like Christian Bale and his acting didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the movie either. That charge his mom and sister made against him — something seems fishy and I’m not going to believe it until shown undeniable proof.

I promise to get back to the San Fran photos, but it’s been a busy week. But stay tuned.

My Entertainment Weekly came today, and I was thrilled to see Twilight featured on the cover. There’s a nice article/interview with Twilight book author Stephenie Meyer, and another article about the movie due out Dec. 12. You can read both on the EW Web site via the links above. I can’t wait for Breaking Dawn, the final book due out in a mere three weeks, then the movie.

Any other Twilighters out there? Are you rooting for Bella to end up with Edward or Jacob?

Did you hear the sigh of relief today? That was me after I finished my chapter outline for my new YA book. I’ve now sent it off to my friend Monica for a read before I make final edits and send it to my editor. Yay! Of course, then it’s on to revisions on my second Harlequin American and my Supernatural essay. I did get good news from my YA editor. Heartbreak River came back from the copyeditor so clean that it’s now off to the printer! I may have bound galleys next month!

Thursday was my birthday, so I took that day off. Hubby took the day off from work. I had lunch with friends, then hubby and I went to see Prince Caspian, which I really enjoyed. In fact, I’m basing the hero in this new YA on Ben Barnes, who plays Caspian. Then I zipped into Books-a-Million to pick up my friend Jeanne Adams’ debut novel, Dark and Dangerous. Finally, we went out to dinner at Olive Garden, which was yummy. It was nice to have a day off to just play in the middle of hectic deadlines, and I think it actually helped me be fresh enough to power through to the end of my outline last night.

Okay, I’ve mentioned before how much I LOVE Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series and how I’m eagerly anticipating the movie Twilight this December. So, I did a little squee when I saw the gorgeous new poster for the movie and discovered there’s a new trailer available for viewing. You can see these at the movie’s new Web site, and you can also download the poster image as your computer’s wallpaper, like I did. Now the image below of Bella and Edward will greet me each time I turn on my computer.

This video of a very sleepy bear cub is so cute. I think most of us have felt like this little guy at some point. In fact, I think I could take a nap now if I tried. But there’s too much to do. I seriously think my to-do list multiplies when I turn away.

I’m eagerly awaiting the release of Twilight in December, but until then I keep popping over to Stephenie Meyer’s blog (she’s author of the book on which the movie is based) to get updates. There are links to this series of videos about the filming of the movie. Cool!

Got a lovely e-mail back from my Razorbill editor yesterday, thanking me for getting my revisions back early and that hopefully the next time I see the manuscript it’ll just be the copy editor’s  line edits. Yay!

I know that seems like a crazy mixture of things in the title of this post, but hey, it’s 11 p.m. and I’m tired. After a long day of board meeting, a group of us went out to a great restaurant called Jasper’s in The Woodlands, Texas. The chef won this year’s Iron Chef competition. I had his famous barbecue ribs and some fantastic potato salad. Mucho yummy!

Author Stephanie Meyer has some new photos up on her site from the movie set of Twilight. I can’t wait to see this movie this December! And I’m really looking forward to Breaking Dawn, the fourth in the series of books that began with Twilight. It comes out in early August.

Mary sent me this link to a funny video of what kids’ songs would sound like if rock stars sang them. Hee hee.

Don’t forget — tomorrow is the last day of voting in the American Title contest. To read the entries and vote, please visit the contest page at the Romantic Times Web site: http://www.romantictimes.com/news_amtitle3.php