Televised Weddings

It's a crappy Monday morning -- first thing this morning I got a nosebleed that won't stop, and second thing I banged the finger I cut last night while fixing dinner and it's bleeding and throbbing. Typing is very slow -- pretty much a one-handed deal -- so I've got the TV on, tuned to The Early Show on CBS, and they're talking to this couple who got married on the plaza last week, complete with camera crews.

I know this giving-away-weddings thing happens a lot -- I think Today and Regis and Kelly have done it, and a local station does it, too. But why does any sane person want to take part? Why would you turn your wedding decisions over to total strangers? This is supposed to be a special, intimate day of your life. Why would you want to broadcast it on national/local TV? Is it for the free stuff? Are people really that easy to buy off? That cheap?

My and Robert's wedding wasn't elegant. It was very small -- family and a few friends. It was very special, and it obviously "took", since it's 29 years later and we're still together. But every decision, from the date and location to the dress and the tuxes to the flowers and the cake was ours.

What's next with the TV folks? "We'll give you nursery stuff if you let us film the conception and birth of your child -- but you have to let our viewers vote on everything, including gender of and name for the baby"? "We'll pay for Grandpa's funeral, but America gets to choose the casket, the cemetery, the minister and the method of grieving"?

I'm just amazed. Rachel9:49 AM

"I fought the lawn and the lawn won."

We're not even into summer yet, and my yard is already kicking my butt. That's not a good sign.

I was so busy when the weeds -- er, grass started growing that I just didn't have time to do anything about it. Then the rains came, and the usual growth rate tripled. I finally have some time to work on it -- just not enough. I have mowed. Trimmed. Raked. Hauled. Dragged. And it still looks like we're living in the middle of a jungle. An ugly jungle.

I would love to spend a few hours mowing a real lawn. Ours is more like pasture. Really. Our neighbor's former horse pasture is across the road from our front yard, putting us in the path of the usual winds. The pasture's gone to weed; the yard's gone to clover and weed. Great if we had grazing animals, but my dogs eat greens only when they need to puke.

Worse, ours is like pasture that's come under constant attack from a super strain of moles and gophers. You can't walk five feet without tripping over a mound, sinking into a hole or twisting an ankle in a collapsing tunnel. Tough enough to walk across. Damn near impossible to push a mower across. I swear, I get a better workout in my arms than my legs.

Last summer, when life got really sucky, I gave up even pretending to take care of the yard, then, when everything dried out enough, I set it on fire. (Hey, I've been setting fires since I was a kid. I'm careful. Never yet had one get away from me.) ((I sound a little like a pyro, don't I? Nothing that exciting. We lived in the country near the railroad tracks, so fire was always a risk. It was necessary to keep the overgrowth cut back -- a controlled burn to lower the odds of a wildfire.))

I have to admit, as I look out over the four-plus acres that I'm supposed to be controlling, the idea of burning occurs to me. But then I'd have to build those muscles some other way, wouldn't I? Rachel9:16 PM

Nominee vs Finalist

It drives me nuts. There are so many awards given in the romance genre -- Romance Writers of America gives the big ones, the RITA and the Golden Heart, and Romantic Times Magazine has their extensive list, then a bunch of the various chapters in RWA sponsor their own awards, as well. (Including my own, Romance Writers Ink, and the mega-cool More Than Magic and Where the Magic Begins awards.)

What makes my teeth grind is when people say they've been nominated for a RITA or More Than Magic or whatever. No, no, no. They are finalists. They were not nominated for the award; they entered the contest (or someone entered them). You're nominated for something when someone else (usually) says, "I think this person/book deserves to be honored." Not when you plunk down bucks and entry forms and put yourself in the running.

You're nominated for an RT award -- the staff at RT reviews the books from the previous year and suggests titles and authors for each category. (I'm jazzed to have been nominated for -- and to have won -- several of their awards.) I've finaled for (and -- ditto -- was jazzed to have won) the RITA and a bunch of others. Anybody can enter a contest and have a shot at finaling. Getting a nomination is out of your control.

We're writers. We use words. Let's use them right. Rachel10:33 AM

The Blues Brothers

I mentioned the other day that I'd been watching The Blues Brothers. I love the movie, love the music, and it's one of my favorites that I watch again and again. I admit, though, to keeping one finger close to the fast-forward button.

The version I have is the director's cut. I'd never bothered to see too many director's cuts before the advent of DVDs. Now I make a point not to watch them if I can help it.

A director's cut reminds me of an author's unedited manuscript. We writers tend to think that much of what we write is awesome stuff (that is, on the days that we're not convinced everything we write is drivel -- yeah, we've got a bit of a split personality thing going on). We often write some fantastic passages that just don't belong in the book. Doesn't matter that the prose is perfect, the description lush, the dialogue witty as hell. If it doesn't belong, it doesn't belong.

But, unless we've got tons of experience (and sometimes even then), we usually need someone else to point out those passages for us. Editors, agents, critique partners -- hopefully someone along the line before the readers.

Directors obviously suffer from the same vanity -- or confidence, if you will. You've gotta believe in yourself to create a good movie, just as with a good book, but you've also got to get other opinions. There are some seriously boring parts in The Blues Brothers (and every other D/C I can think of). The opening scene in TBB would put me to sleep if I couldn't fast-forward through it. It drags along, pretty much pointless, like some of the scenes I've written that got cut from the final manuscript.

The difference is, there's no market out there for the author's cut of The Assassin, Deep Cover or Scorched.

For which I'm most grateful!

Don't forget: if you'd like to get an advance copy of Scorched free in exchange for a brief comment (but only if you like it!), email me: rachel@rachelbutler.com. Rachel5:01 PM

ARCs!

I got the advance reading copies of Scorched today, and I'm proposing a trade. For the first five people to contact me, I'll send you a copy if you'll agree that, if you enjoy the book, you'll send me in return a quote and permission to use it with your name on the website and possibly in Happily Ever Authors stuff. Of course, if you like it and you wanted to post a review on Amazon and/or B&N, that would be cool, too. And if you told every single person you know in the entire world who reads, that would be coolest.

If you're interested, just email me: rachel@rachelbutler.com. Rachel2:40 PM

Movies

I think I'm just about the only person in my life who doesn't care much about movies. I go to the theater about once a year and have seen maybe ten of the movies on the American Film people's list of the greatest hundred movies. (And for a couple of semesters in California, I was a Film and Television Production major! But my goal was to be an audito, not actually involved in the creative aspect of filmmaking.)

When I like a movie, I really like it a lot and will watch it over and over. I just don't care to watch many movies that I don't already know I'll like. All of my favorites are years old -- The Blues Brothers, Men in Black, The Hunt for Red October, Sister Act, Down Periscope, Doc Hollywood, and so on. Except for Harry Potter -- those are the most recent movies in my meager collection.

The last couple days I've been watching Blues Brothers. It may be old, but I still love it. Granted, I'm a huge blues fan, so the music is a big plus, but the movie is just a hoot. I love the mall scene, and the country-music bar scene, and the restaurant scene. And the chase scene at the end . . . I like it. A lot.

Somehow, I always make friends with big movie buffs. Liz, Leah and DL probably see more movies in a month than I see in a year. When we lived in North Carolina, my friend Judith saw just about every movie released each year and spent her time at home rewatching the classics on cable. She reminded me a lot of Remington Steele, able to quote old films, the stars, the plots, when they were made. And I'd just go , "Uh-huh." I was grown before I saw Casablanca for the first time. I've seen Gone with the Wind once, and that was plenty. I vaguely remember an Errol Flynn movie where he was a pirate, don't think I ever saw Clark Gable in anything besides GWTW, have seen two or maybe three Humphrey Bogart movies. Though I own Pirates of the Caribbean, I haven't actually seen it all the way through one time and I'm not totally sure about the plot.

I was once friends with another woman who loved movies and was convinced that she could convert me. She nagged and nagged me to see Titanic on the big screen. Didn't work. Nagged me to rent it when it came out. Didn't work. So she moved on to her last option: she invited Robert and me over to dinner one night, got us seated on the couch in the living room with food, turned the damn movie on and wouldn't turn it off.

(Did you notice that I mentioned we were friends? As in, I wouldn't spit on her now if she was on fire. Not just because of the attempt to force-feed me her favorite movie -- that was minor compared to all the other crap that happened. But I have to admit that every time I see that Titanic T-shirt -- the one that says, "The damn boat sank. Get over it." -- I do think of her with an evil grin.)

The point? Sheesh, I don't really need to have a point, do I? Rachel10:11 PM

Food

When the kiddo was about ten years old and we were eating the best hamburgers we'd ever had at a little place outside an Air Force base back east, he suggested that I write a travel restaurant guide, and he would help me do the research by traveling cross country and eating at all the restaurants we came to.

I have to admit, the idea of traveling -- and eating -- for a job held a lot of appeal. (I'd hate to think how much weight I would have gained along the way, driving all day and stopping only to eat and sleep!) I never say never, but I don't think it likely I'll ever write such a guide.

However, I have spent a good deal of time putting together a cookbook. It's not for publication -- these are my recipes. Only five copies exist -- Liz, Leah and DL each got one for Christmas last year, and I've got one partially organized for the kiddo. (He likes to cook; D-I-L likes to clean. Works out great.) Still, it's one of my favorite projects.

For years, we never ate at home -- once, maybe twice every couple weeks. Then I discovered the joy of cooking. Nope, not the cookbook, but the real pleasure. I love reading recipes, love trying new dishes. I make the best baby back ribs -- Leah's husband says so -- and my jambalaya and bread pudding are legendary. And don't get me started on my baklava . . . oh, my God, it's incredible. With a pound of butter and cups of sugar and honey and walnuts, it damn well should be. (Nope, no modesty here. I know what tastes good.)

I try at least one or two new recipes a week; if we like them, they eventually get into the cookbook; if we don't, they hit the trash. The cookbook itself lives in a binder -- actually three binders now. I type up the recipes and print them in a large font because with age goes my vision. (My hearing's not what it used to be, either. And the aches in my knees . . . but it still beats being dead.) Every recipe in the collection is one we've tried and liked. Granted, not everyone does. After all, I tried and liked fried shrimp heads. In fact, I'll try pretty much anything set in front of me. My only rule is it has to be dead. I don't swallow nothin' that's still breathing. Other than that, I'm open to it.

And if I like it, it gets into my book. And when all is said and done, that book just might be the most memorable of all of them I've written. Rachel6:49 PM

Wow, it took a while -- I went for a ten-minute walk while this sucker was loading -- but here it is! Diva Mary will be adding it to the homepage soon, but I wanted to go ahead and post it here now.

Is that not a too-cool cover??? Notice Selena's short hair at the top? A clue about one of the many actions she takes while on the run in this story. Though her curls didn't magically disappear in the book, as they did on the cover.

July 29th -- that's the big day for the book. Hope you guys who have waited so patiently haven't given up hope! Rachel8:47 AM

Mangled English

I was reading some posts at All About Romance about what drove people nuts with books. I was surprised but totally jazzed to see that bad language, grammar, and spelling scored high with a lot of folks. One reader has even compiled a list of misused words she comes across often in books and adds to it as necessary. I'm too lazy for that -- though when I read an author who's really repetitive or in the grasp of the cliche monster, I have been known to grab a highlighter and start marking up the pages.

As those of you who have stuck around here a long time know, the sloppy use of language and punctuation by professional writers just pisses me off. Verb tenses are easy to learn. Spelling can be checked by spell-check, and if that fails, you can look it up in the damn dictionary. Punctuation can be tougher because the rules have changed over the years in response to our growing carelessness, but it can be learned if you try.

What got me ranting about this? you ask. (Okay, so you didn't ask, because you know I'm going to tell you anyway.) It didn't have anything to do with writing at all, except in a roundabout way. It was a story on the evening news about immigration, and the reporter kept talking about entering the country "e-legally." After the second or third time, I screamed at the TV. A professional television news reporter -- meaning one who's a professional, not just one who has the job and does it sloppily -- should know how to pronounce the words in his story. It's a short "i" at the beginning, moron. ILLegal. If you don't know, ask someone who does. If no one does or you get conflicting answers, get a damn dictionary.

In all the many, many hours I've seen of Katie Couric on television, only one thing stands out in my memory: the time she said American Idol winner Carrie Underwood was from "Check-o-tah," Oklahoma. It's Checotah. Shuh-KO-tuh.

I don't know -- it just seems to me that if you're going to make a living -- and for a lot of these folks, it's a darn good living -- using words, then you have an obligation to use them properly.

Because otherwise you're going to really piss off a lot of us. Rachel9:34 AM

Hey! With the Diva's help, I was finally able to post a picture! Isn't it great? That's two of my three best buds -- Meg Reid on the left (http://www.margaretereid.com) and Susan Shay on the right (http://www.susanshay.net) on the right. And, of course, moi in the middle. Aren't we gorgeous??

The picture was taken -- by Meg's daughter, the uber-smart, uber-talented, uber-pretty Amy -- at a Valentine's Day signing Meg and I did with six or seven other authors at Barnes and Noble in Tulsa this past February. It was Meg's first ever signing, and we had a ball.

Of course, we always do. After all, we're, like, the best people we know! Rachel6:58 PM

Grrr

I was going to post the cool cover for SCORCHED here, just because I could. Well, I thought I could. I've posted pictures here before without any trouble, but not in ages. I tried, and the program just blew a giant raspberry at me. Honestly, I couldn't even find the right buttons to click. I just kept going in circles. And I tried using the "Help" feature, but it kept telling me that if I clicked here, this would happen, and it never did.

I'm not very tech savvy. What's more, I don't want to be. God gave that gift to other people. I just want my computer to come on when I tell it to, to not lose my files, and to always be ready with a game of Solitaire. Is that so much to ask? Oh, yeah, and when I DO learn how to do something, I don't want it to change on me. Sheesh, I can only learn so much stuff, you know, and technical stuff ain't high on that list. I admire people who do it. Leah did her own website, and it looks pretty darn good. I tried that once years ago, and it was amazingly yucky. Thank God I never got so far as trying to actually upload it so other people could see how bad it looked.

Guess we'll just have to wait to show off the cover. Have I mentioned before that it's really cool? And one of these days, maybe I'll figure out the picture-posting thing again.

Or not. Rachel4:53 PM

Happily Ever Authors

Hey, check us out: Happily Ever Authors have a new look for their site, with tidbits from all -- or at least -- most of us members. The address is: http://www.happilyeverauthors.com. (If that shows up as a hyperlink, woohoo! I usually have trouble getting those suckers to work.)

Diva Mary has such a great eye for websites. She did mine, Selena's and my alter ego's, as well as sister Liz's. She's great to work with, and is too cool -- though she does keep threatening to come up with a picture of me herself if I don't! The one she proposed had a distinct resemblance to me AND Groucho Marx.

Speaking of both my and Selena's sites, we're going to do an update soon. And I swear, Selena's going to blog again. She's been a tad reticent for, oh, like FOREVER. Even Tony has trouble getting her to talk to him sometimes. I'll have to coax her into sharing something with us at least once before the next book comes out. Rachel8:35 PM

My Space

I just don't get the whole buzz about My Space. (Is it one word or two? Oh, well . . .)

Sisters Liz and Leah both have pages there. The kiddo does, and so does D-I-L and Liz's gorgeous daughter and about a jillion authors, and about half of them ask me why I don't have a page.

The other night I had some spare time and I checked out the place. There's a couple of hours I'll never get back. I'm on dial-up, remember, so first, it was SLOOOOW. Then the fonts were mostly teeny-tiny. I got noseprints on the screen trying to read without my glasses. Most of the pictures were too small to really see much, even with my glasses. It just wasn't my idea of fun. I'd rather cruise websites and blogs ANY day.

I asked someone why they had a page there, and they said it was fun keeping up with friends elsewhere, and they also ran into a lot of people they'd gone to school with and could catch up that way. Hmm . . . I try to AVOID running into people I went to school with. (You'd be amazed how many new "old friends" I got after selling my first couple books.) As far as keeping up with friends, refer back to websites and blogs.

Maybe if I had a REAL Internet connection, I would like it more. At least it wouldn't take as long to load stuff I can't see.

But as it is now, I just don't get it. Rachel8:15 AM

Yeah, yeah

I know -- it's been a long time. And I don't even have much of an excuse for not posting once in a while. Okay, yeah, I've been busy with family. And I've been writing. And editing. And page-proofing. And sleeping.

Since the last time I was here, we celebrated the kiddo's birthday (sort of -- he was in a different state) and our anniversary. Twenty-nine years! Can you believe it? (For the marriage. Twenty-eight for the kiddo.)

And fabulous news -- we found out I'm going to be something besides a year older in October: the kiddo and d-i-l are expecting! Is that too cool?? I love babies. Love 'em even more when I get to send them home with someone else. I'm hoping hoping HOPING for a granddaughter, someone cute and cuddly and sweet whom I can dress in frilly little dresses and lacy socks and hats -- at least, until she's old enough to take them off and run around naked.

D-I-L was -- is -- a really girly girl, so I figure any daughter of hers will probably be the tomboy to kick the asses of all tomboys. She's having a great time with morning sickness. I never had any problem with it myself, except when I ate really spicy foods in the last few months (wonder if that's got anything to do with why the kiddo has such a sensitive palate ;-) but I'm sympathetic to her.

Hey, wouldn't it be too great if they have twins? Identical granddaughters -- too cool! Rachel6:34 PM