In Which Thoroughly Obsessed Thursday...

OK.  This is what we're going to do.

For the rest of the summer, I am going to post as much as I can, and if (read: when) I am late, I'm not going to apologize.  It's going to keep happening, and the constant contrition is going to get old for all of us.  So let's just go with it.

And now, obsessive links!

From the *HeadDesk* department of WTF-ery, comes SB Sarah's remarkable response to a remarkably horrific article about the effect of romance articles on female perceptions and sexuality.  Let's just say that you learn research techniques in middle school that are better than those used to write this annoying piece of drivel (To clarify: the article is drivel.  SB Sarah's response is badass).

From the *This Might Have to Be My New Cult Favorite* department of Awesomesauce comes this critique and clip of the upcoming show Once Upon a Time.  Does the premise sound awkward and ill-thought-out?   Perhaps.  But then there's the fact that it comes from the writers of Lost.  There's also the fact that the clip is... awesome.  Go to there.

Also, those just catching up to the UK phone hacking scandal should check out this article from the June issue of Vanity Fair.  We could be witnessing their Watergate.

And finally, from the *Start Lining Up Already* department of GAH! comes the news that the Arrested Development feature film is alive and well.  And anything George Bluth says must be... exaggerated for the manipulation of his stockholders.  Nonetheless.  This time next year, people!!

Have a lovely weekend.

In Which Monday Menu Mayhem Comes Back With a Vengeance.

Friends, blog-ees, countrymen.

First if all, thank you for your epic amounts of patience with my absentee-ism.  It's been a long-ass two weeks (Two out of the last three Mondays I have dined at the Legal Seafood at Logan Airport.  And those are not the only two times I have been to Logan in the past two weeks).  I had intended to be back in full-force last week, but this was one of those "vacations" that doubles as the exact polar opposite of a vacation, and I'm afraid I had to spend all of my spare time last week sleeping, decompressing and... reading :)

Yes, I have five book reviews in my back pocket.  No, I'm not going to break them out right now.

NOT ON MONDAY MENU MAYHEM!!

So.  As we bust through the first half of 2011 (holyhellhowdidthathappen?) we bust through MMM paradigms.  We are not a Nigella-only establishment any longer.  We still heart Nigella, and we will still cook from Nigella Kitchen like nobody's business.  But enough of this self-limiting nonsense, yes?

This weekend was filled with cooking and cooking and more cooking, which is a little shocking, because I'm on this new diet (I promise not to mention this excessively... I can really think of nothing more boring than that... I'm also not an advertising campaign for anything except books, so I'm not going to name the diet.  I'll just say it's working).  ANYWAY, I'm on this new diet, and I basically can eat... chicken.  So this cooking thing was surprising and heartening, given that I was afeared the MMM would have to go away for a while.

I made kale chips.  Dude, I don't even know what came over me.  I've been hearing a lot about them recently, and then a friend on Facebook made them and posted about it, and basically my thought process was "If someone I know in real-life is making them and it's not only the food of my faux-BFF Gwyneth Paltrow, I must be able to make them too."  In other words, it became less an ambrosia, and more of a mortal food.

It was super easy too!  Tear up some kale.  Toss with olive oil.  Roast for about 10 minutes at 400.  Also, use considerably less salt than I did.  Potato chips these were not, but as far as toasted leafy greens go, they got thumbs up from none other than a seriously skeptical Boy Scout.  After announcing that they were just "aiight," he proceeded to keep stealing pieces out of the bowl while lecturing me on the fact that I was removing them from Scout Camp to my office for the week.  I'll take that as a "like."

There was also the traditional roasting of the tomatoes, which is truly one of the great seasonal ironies.  Must roast fresh tomatoes.  When are tomatoes the best?  In the broiling summer sun!  How do we roast tomatoes?  By turning on the oven for HOURS at a time.  This is also a Gwyneth recipe: more chopping, more tossing with the olive oil (also salt and pepper), and then thrown on a cookie sheet face up for about 3 hours on 275.  Voila.  I really try to save these for things... salads, sauces, soups... but then I just eat them out of the bowl in about 10 minutes.  They're that awesome.

That's not all we made this weekend, but that's about all I'm prepared to sum-up for the time being.  My hands are out of practice with all of this typing...

Happy Monday, everyone.  And thanks for having me back.

In Which Thoroughly Obsessed Thursday is Filled with Procrastination Tools.

It's been one of those days/weeks/months.  Call it the winter doldrums, call it the need for hibernation, call it not wanting to talk to anyone anymore because you're so tired of hearing complaints about the weather.  Call it awesome supernatural mind melt due to intensive amounts of Buffy and Blades of the Rose.

Whatever it is, my concentration is down, my mood is pensive, and my need for staring in to the distance is up up up.

THUS!  I present to you all of the things I have used to distract myself in the past few days.

First of all, have you seen www.theoatmeal.com?  No?  You need to go there.  Now.  If you don't have time for browsing, please at least check out this: The State of the Web, What It's Like to Own an Apple Product (truer words...) and How Many Baboons Could You Take in a Fight....  Wendy Pan took the quiz.  She got 37.

Also, have you seen this video?  It's the single greatest thing I have yet seen this year.  I think I watched it six times today, because it kept making me smile. 

There's also this video, which also made me smile, but more in the stand-up-and-cheer kinda way.  If this man represents the future leaders of our country, then sign me up:


If that's not enough coolness for you, then I'm... not cool enough.  But I thought we already knew that...?

GO PACKERS!!

In Which Thoroughly Obsessed Thursday Lives the Obsession

First of all, a very special thanks and shout-out to the Wendy Pan for her most excellent review of the Amazon Kindle.  As a hopeful librarian in training, I have serious issues with the thought of giving up printed books, though we all know I have certainly found solace in my Kindle for iPhone.

I was going to let the Wendy Pan's obsession sit as Obsession de la semaine, but I already had mine plotted... so hers shall be the review de la semaine.  Dig?

So the reason I can't come up with a review myself is because this week I am obsessed with... Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Have I mentioned that one of the ways I maintain my sanity in life is through marathons of excellent TV shows?  It's been far too long since I have Buffy'd, Aliased, Felicity'd, and Battlestar Galactica'd, and my psyche is showing the signs of neglect.

Part of the ohholyhell awesomeness is the heroines, obviously.  Sydney Bristow is one of the best (duh), and I have even taken important life lessons from Felicity, especially in the realm of... not getting drunk and waking up in a frat boy's bed.

ANYWAY.

Buffy and I have very little in common, and I can't relate to her, so it's hard for me to call her One of My Favorite Heroines.  That said, Joss Whedon wrote a brilliant character; a valley girl who fights vampires, is secretly super smart, and has common sense coming out of her ears. And as I watch first two and a half seasons (Thank you, Boy Scout.  There is a secret place in Boyfriend Heaven for Boys Who Let Their Girlfriends Work Out Their Issues Through Vampire Violence), I cannot help but think about another teenage girl who falls in love with a vampire against her better judgment (?) and lives to tell the tale.  Whether that tale is horrifically bad or not.

But as in so many most excellent things, the best part of Buffy is the supporting players.  Xander, Willow, and Giles all make or break the show... the few eps that any or all of them are not present are lacking severely.  The dialogue, the intelligence, the His Girl Friday-brand rapport is insane (in the best way) and when (the long-suffering) Boy Scout announced that he wasn't a fan of Buffy because "it's just not realistic," I couldn't help but take it as the best compliment ever.

This is where we are.  Obsessed with marathoning, and marathoning Buffy.  It's comfort food for the nerd's hibernating soul.

In Which Thoroughly Obsessed Thursday is Procrastinating. Seriously.

Wow. This is one big ol’ hunk of procrastination, right here. I’m 3,200 words behind to meet quota tonight (No writing at all yesterday. At all. So now we have to make up for it, somehow...) and perhaps my heroine will suddenly develop a desire to blog about being thoroughly obsessed on Thursdays. You don’t know. And neither do I. It’s the nature of the beast.

I do want to take a moment to talk about my re-entry into the world of Historical Romance. It’s been a while since I’ve been in to it, as (I’m sure some of you are aware) these things are cyclical. One day you can’t get enough of the demonic paranormals, the next you’re drooling over wounded Napoleonic soldiers.

It Happened One Autumn is what did it for me (and no, I’m not jumping backward into Secrets of a Summer Night... I’ve instead started an Eloisa James called A Kiss at Midnight). Something about that book in particular re-enchanted me with the gloriousity of good regency novel, what it’s like when charming (and slightly clueless) heroines get together with rakishly good looking Earls/Dukes/Marquis/Etc.

So when I was at San Francisco International last week, I naturally bought four (yep, onetwothreefour) historicals. Please don’t tell Boy Scout. I may or may not have made a promise not to buy any new books. Clearly he had to know I was lying. Well, not lying. There was nothing malicious about it. It was more like short-sightedness.

ANYWAY. As soon as I have time in life (ha ha ha. HA.) I’m going to read these historical romance novels. And then I’m going to tell you about them. But in the meantime, in case you’re procrastinating about WriMo, too, here are some of my fave historicals to look up on Amazon:

Captain of All Pleasures (Kresley Cole)- The first and one of the best Kresley Coles, this one features a sailing contest, and a hot hero named Derek. And you know I’m a sucker for heroes named Derek.

Dreaming of You (Lisa Kleypas)- I’m also a sucker for a hero who is so bad he’s yummy. Just about every scene when Derek Craven tries to send Sara Fielding back to where she came from makes me melt.

Guardian Angel (Julie Garwood)- The Pirate Pagan. And a butler named Sterns. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Spymaster’s Lady (Joanna Bourne)- Girl spy. More post-Revolutionary France. Badass.

A Touch of Fire (Linda Howard)- Sure Rafe’s a bit of a douchecanoe at the beginning, but you would be too if you were on the run after being wrongly accused, and then shot. It’s the way they come together (and the not-quite-accurate history) that is awesome.

Goddammit, that did not take up nearly enough time. Now I have to go write. For realsies.

Dear My Heroine: How do you feel about blogging? It’s cool, right?...

Well Now I'm Really Grumpy.

"You are my heroine. And by heroine I mean 'lady hero'. I don't want to inject you and listen to jazz."

-Liz Lemon

So I had this lovely post about romance novel heroines written, and then Blogger had a freakout and now it's gone. And I'm sad. Actually, I'm really sad because it was a kick-ass post.

I haven't read any books since Dead End Gene Pool, and it might be early next week before I finish another one. So instead of writing another boring review of... something... I think it's time we talk about heroines. Back in the day I wrote a Top Ten Heroes post (that ended up containing only nine heroes), but I've spent very little time talking about heroines.

Devotees will know that I am in the process of writing a romance novel (or twelve) in my spare time (read: never). The personality and strength of my main heroine, Lyla, is something I am terrified of getting wrong. Because it is ridiculously easy to go very, very wrong.

It could be argued that The Heroine is the most important character in the book, because in 99.9% of books the majority of the story's POV will be on her. Great strides have been taken to give the hero greater perspective in recent years, but the focus is still mostly on the heroine. And thank goodness, because the only thing worse than a flaming jackass hero is a too-stupid-to-live heroine.

Because I'm writing a heroine (or twelve) I have very definite ideas about what she should and should not do. She should not be (too much of) a bitch, but she should not be a spineless nitwit. And by all that is good and holy, if the hero is being a flaming rat bastard, she should not sit around pining and waiting for him to get over himself. Is he The One? Presumably-- he is The Hero, after all. But that doesn't mean that she can't go out and date and have fun without him. And if she does go out and date and have fun, he shall not come back from rat-bastardom and announce that she has been a slut while he was away.

Examples my heroine will NOT be following are:

*Any Diane Palmer heroine, ever. Seriously... speaking of putting up with rat-bastardom to excess...

*Most Sandra Brown heroines, who seem to be born lacking an "honest conversation" gene

*Sarah from Sarah's Child (the dude you're in love with asks you to get an abortion? Dealbreaker!)

*Lauren from Double Standards (grow a damn spine and stop being the pawn of every man in your life. Also, get yourself a "person." She'll make you stop acting like an idiot)

From past experience, I know I'm going to need a few days (or at least a 2 hour ride in the car to Scout Land) to formulate my Top Ten list. Know this: it will include Sydney Bristow. While I acknowledge that she is not a romance novel heroine, she is still a heroine, has romance, and is one of the models for how I want to live my life (minus all of the deceit, dead friends, and dead fiances).

I'll let you think over the weekend too. Because this here is going to be a proper discussion on Monday morning. Dig?

National Novel Writing Month (OR: Why I Might Be Writing Nonsense in this Blog for a While)

So National Novel Writing Month has started once again, and once again I am testing my sanity (and creative abilities) to see if I can write 50,000 words in a month.

So far, I'm 1/25 of the way through, and I'm feeling pretty good. But ask me about it again in a week.

I'm working with an idea I started toying with last year at about this same time; I remember it really coming together on the ride from San Diego to San Francisco to see my cousin for Thanksgiving. I honestly haven't given it much thought since then, and 2,000 words in, it's already very different from what I originally had planned. We'll see what happens.

In the spirit of the paranormal age, I'm aiming for something with a paranormal bent, but grounded in the real world. Should be fun, right? Yeah, well we'll see.

I might need to use this as a forum to write through some ideas and philosophies, so be ready. There's a lot more rambling to come.