Wow. Lionsgate bought Summit and is planning to extend the Twilight movies beyond the books.
I doubt they’ll get RPattz and KStew back, though.
Archive for the ‘books’ Category
Even More Twilight?
Posted in books, movies, paranormal romances, vampires, wtf, tagged kristen stewart, lionsgate bought summit, lionsgate buys summit, Movies, Robert Pattinson, twilight, twilight movies on January 14, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Zen and The Killing on AMC
Posted in books, reading, Television, The Killing, writing life, tagged amc the killing, amc's the killing, mad men, meditation, television, the killing, writing, writing life, zen, zen and the art of falling in love on April 24, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Tragically behind on posting here. Don’t think it means I don’t love you, because I do, I really do.
I’ve been revising the young adult paranormal manuscript I wrote in two months.
Also have snuck in a little reading, socializing and chardonnay.
And TV viewing.
God, are you all watching The Killing on AMC, because if you’re not you should be.
It’s the first show I’ve been excited about since Mad Men premiered in 2007. It’s a completely gripping story about the murder investigation of a teenage girl in Seattle. The characters are as gray as the weather and the acting is fantastic.
Mostly I’ve been working–revising this manuscript at a bakery/restaurant downtown. I love this cafe because there is a huge enclosed courtyard with tons of tables so I don’t have to feel guilty about sitting there for hours; there’s always room for everyone.
This place is so good that even though some of my friends think there’s an identity thief who works there–someone has taken their credit card numbers and used them and all signs point to this place–they still go there and just pay in cash. The croissant-like caramel pecan rolls and Cobb salads are that delicious.
On my way home from the bakery I pass a thrift store that gives proceeds to the homeless. All the books there are $2 each.
I picked up one called Zen and the Art of Falling in Love. A review on Amazon hilariously complained that it didn’t tell you how to hook up with the hot guy at work, but this book is so not about that.
More significantly, it got me, the most restless woman in the universe, to sit down and meditate.
I’ve had meditation recommended to me a lot, especially since I used to live in L.A., but I never got it before.
Now I do.
You experience being in the moment. It’s very heady when you’re done. I never realized how much I was living in the future or dwelling on the past.
This stuff is pretty amazing.
Happy Easter and good vibes to all of you! Also, The Killing is on tonight. You can also watch it at amctv.com.
Bucket List Update: Write a Novel in Two Months
Posted in books, bucket list, paranormal romances, writing, writing life, tagged bucket list, how to write a novel, how to write a novel in two months, mad men bucket list, paranormal romance, write a novel in two months, write or die, writeordie, writing a paranormal romance, writing advice on March 11, 2011 | 2 Comments »
My mini bucket list is silly because 1) I am not including anything personal on it since I don’t roll that way on the Internet anymore. 2) It doesn’t have an end date and 3) It does have an end date, which is the nebulous “whenever Mad Men comes back on.”
Anyway, I checked a big one off today: Write young adult paranormal romance novel in two months.
Done.
I started writing this book (not announcing the title yet), my first novel, on January 10 of this year. It still needs a lot of work, but I did finish it yesterday. It’s currently 270 pages.
The most important thing I learned is that I can write like a fast mofo when I have to and that it’s really not that hard.
At first I was proud of myself for writing maybe 800 words a day, but now I see that 3000-4000 is not unreasonable at all, especially if you’re not doing other writing work.
I relied heavily on Write or Die and also having a writing buddy, Michelle. We met on twitter and wrote together mostly every Tuesday and Wednesday, with other check-ins throughout the week.
Twitter is great for this kind of thing. It is filled with writers who have nothing but time on their hands. Kidding, but it is a great hangout for writers.
Stephen King recommends that you don’t spend more than three months on your first draft because you lose the energy and enthusiasm for the story. Now I get what he’s saying. I felt really immersed in my novel’s world since I cranked it out so fast.
Not gonna lie, though. I couldn’t have done it if I had been working on other things. Writing a book is freakin’ hard.
Kevin Smith Smonologue #9
Posted in books, celebrities, Dating Amy, movies, writing life, tagged ben affleck speech chasing amy, chasing amy, chasing amy speech painting birds diner of, Dating Amy, datingamy.com, holden's speech chasing amy, Kevin Smith, kevin smith boring ass life, kevin smith monologues, kevin smith smonologues, kevin smith twitter, kevin smith writing pep talk, smonologue, smonologue #9 on February 22, 2011 | 1 Comment »
I really like Kevin Smith. I like his attitude, I like his sense of humor, I like his rants. I sort of named Dating Amy, the blog that launched my career as an author, after one of his films (even though my name is Amy). I love his films.
He had me with Clerks, of course, but it wasn’t until Ben Affleck’s Chasing Amy speech about the painting of birds bought in a diner that I realized there was no turning back.
And now I am in Smonologue #9?
So excited.
Self-Published Troll Book to be Adapted by ‘District 9′ Scribe
Posted in books, movies, paranormal romances, publishing news, tagged amanda hocking, amanda hocking switched, books, district 9, ebooks, film, hocking switched movie, Movies, self-published books, self-publishing, self-publishing amazon, switched film, switched film adaptation, terri tatchell, trylle trilogy, young adult books on February 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Huge Hollywood news out of the getting-hard-to-ignore self-publishing realm.
So when she couldn’t get a traditional book deal, Amanda Hocking wrote and self-published the Trylle trilogy. It’s a cute, fast-paced paranormal romance about trolls and a seemingly regular teenaged girl who gets called back to become queen of their kingdom.
Minnesota twenty-something author Hocking is a true self-publishing success story, and has sold something like 500,000 of her books directly through Amazon in less than a year.
Today she announced that the first book in the series, Switched, which I loved, by the way, is going to be adapted into a screenplay by Terri Tatchell, who penned Best Original Screenplay nominee District 9.
This kind of independent, enterpreneurial stuff just thrills me.
Congratulations, Amanda, and I cannot wait to see über dreamboat Finn on the big screen.
