So it’s my children’s birthday. Children’s plural. Birthday singular. Yes, three years ago I had twins and ever since then, it’s been sheer utter craziness.
To celebrate, I’m giving away one digital copy of my debut novel, Brave in Heart, via Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice). Just a leave a comment below and I’ll pick a winner at random after midnight EST on Friday, December 27, 2013.
Cheers!
There are lots of lovely Christmas romances on film, including The Shop Around the Corner, Love Actually, and While You Were Sleeping; many other holiday classics include secondary romance plots (It’s a Wonderful Life, Meet Me in St. Louis, Miracle on 34th Street, The Bishop’s Wife). Today’s very special Christmas Eve edition of A Fine Romance Friday is going another direction, however, a more Hepburn and Tracy direction, specifically to Walter Lang’s underrated 1957 film Desk Set.
Desk Set takes place in a totally fantasy world in which Hepburn’s television studio research library is being threatened by a new fangled invention, Tracy’s brand new computer. See, something like that would never happen in real life. Anyhow, Hepburn and Tracy play refreshingly middle-aged, smart, career-driven people who banter and bicker, reveal vulnerabilities and attractions, all while navigating a changing world.
Hepburn has gone about as far as a woman of her time could go, which is to the head of small department with no further promotions in sight, and into the arms of a long-term boyfriend, a sniveling mid-level executive who doesn’t intend to propose and isn’t half-worthy of her. She’s a woman in need of the feminist revolution. Tracy, who has been so wrapped up in his work that he’s neglected to develop any social skills, bruises his way in, neglecting to be honest about the corporate changes at the studio and his technological innovation and setting up the Big Misunderstandings of the third act.
And it does feel like an act. The material’s stage roots are evident, Tracy isn’t half as convincing as an engineer as Hepburn is as librarian, and the computer, when it arrives, is amusing as hell. But Hepburn and Tracy are always magic together on screen and the two big holiday set pieces–one involving a sort of clown car on Thanksgiving and the other a wild office Christmas party–are worth the price of admission. Behold a marvelously drunk Hepburn and be grateful.
So among my many Christmas comfort viewings, I make room for Desk Set.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
I’m procrastinating. And in moments of procrastination, I blog. And in case in moments of procrastination you read blogs, I present for your viewing pleasure a list of my most treasured lip-locking moments in cinema. I’m stealing this idea quite shamelessly from Katy Regnery, who blogged about her favorite movie kisses a few weeks ago.
Follow me below the fold…
I had to write a one-sentence summary of my forthcoming book Special Interests and it turned out pretty well so I thought I’d share.
A shy labor organizer and an arrogant congressional aide clash over the federal budget but find love the more difficult negotiation.
Is it April yet?
Like any good American on the day after Thanksgiving, I’m in a bit of a food coma. Not a tryptophan coma–I don’t like and therefore never make turkey; yes, I know, I should revisit that “good American” thing–but a definite one-too-many-helpings-of-pumpkin-pie, why-yes-one-more-roll-would-be-lovely haze. So today’s selection has to be food-related. And my favorite food-related romance is Wong Kar-Wai’s Chungking Express.
We’ve already talked about In the Mood for Love, which is a stunning film, though ultimately not a genre romance. Chungking Express is, however. It’s upbeat, charming, and very very romantic. It’s a perfect post-Thanksgiving fine romance.
It tells two love stories about heart-broken cops in mid-90s Hong Kong. In the first (which is a fairly brief amuse-bouche), a nameless cop waits a month to move on after his girlfriend breaks up with him, meting out a piece of pineapple every day as he works through his grief and memories. When the month is up, he meets a mysterious drug smuggler and invites her up to his room. Things don’t go as planned. In the second story, a young woman working at a fast food noodle place is in love with a cop she serves everyday. He’s too busy nursing a broken heart to notice. Until he does. The end.
Let’s count what’s good here. 1) Tony Leung. Basically, I think he’s incredibly sexy and I’d watch him read the phone book. With subtitles. 2) Michael Galasso’s music, both the original score and the soundtrack choices. This film has the best cinematic use of The Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin'” ever. 3) Christopher Doyle’s cinematography. Doyle and Wong Kar-Wai have a long history of working together, including on In the Mood for Love. But while the cinematography of ITMFL calls attention to itself, almost takes over the film, here it’s invisible and innovative until it does something so casually brilliant that it changes how you understand the profilmic events. Here’s a thoughtful analysis of a 22-second shot from the film that encapsulates the longing in the second story perfectly. 4) The use of classic cinema and longing. In my haze, I’m not going to be able to say this as well as I’d like, but the film uses filmic nostalgia as a stand-in for nostalgia for the past. In the context of the two stories (not to mention the film’s visual coding), it’s a perfect metaphor.
This all makes it sound very pretentious and it’s not. Chungking Express is delightful. If you haven’t seen any Wong Kar-Wai, it’s the perfect place to start. I’ll be watching it with dim sum tonight!
There are times–entire weeks of my life actually–when I forget that I have books releasing next year. Two of them. And then I remember and minor panic attacks ensue.
What if no one reads my book? What if no one likes my book? How am I going to get people to read and like my book?
The book in question is the one formerly known as The Easy Part, now known as Special Interests. It will appear in an ebook store near you on April 4, 2014. And while the back cover copy, excerpts, etc. are forthcoming, this morning, in a fit of panic, I created a playlist for the book. Because that’s how you sell books: with an enticing playlist.
Regardless, if you use Spotify and want to listen to the most-played tracks from when I was writing the first draft a year ago, you can check it out here.
In the meantime, I’ll be over here having a panic attack.
So which one of you is going to write me a novel about one of these two guys?
(This is a meditation on how I read. Here are my thoughts on why and what.)
As you probably know I wrote a book, a historical romance set during the American Civil War called Brave in Heart. It released in July and a handful of people read it. Some went so far as to write things down about it. Some of the things were joyous and celebratory, others were more measured or censorious, but still: people read what I had written and said thoughtful things about it. All together, it was one of the nicest intellectual experiences I’ve had.
In becoming an author, in adding creator to reader and scholar in my list of bookish roles, I began to wonder about the process of reading–and not just reading but evaluation. How do we do it? And how should we?
Ten years ago Love, Actually released. I was reminded of this yesterday when I read this article about what we’ve learned from it.
This makes me feel old. I was in college at the time and I saw it in theaters, though fairly late in the game because I’m really distrustful of movies with too many major stars and in 2003, it would have been difficult to cram more famous British actors into a single film than Love, Actually did. (Remember, most of the Harry Potter films hadn’t released yet.) I only relented when everyone I knew saw it and insisted it was terrific.
In the intervening decade, Love, Actually has entered the canon not just of romantic comedies, but also of holiday movies. It’s a staple on American TV in November and December. It’s the kind movie I can use as an example in class with confidence that most of my students will have seen it. It’s also this week’s fine romance selection–the first one since August!
Above the fold, I’m going to do a typical fine romance Friday rah-rah-rah post. But I have really complicated feelings about the movie, so if you want to see my spoiler-y, critical commentary, follow me below the fold.
Love, Actually is definitely one of the best romantic comedies of the last twenty years. It’s set in contemporary London and concerns inter-connected characters and stories playing out over the six weeks leading up to Christmas. There are happy stories and sad stories. New love and old love. Romantic love, platonic love, and familial love. It’s sweet and charming and delightful.
Though the background is Christmas-y, it’s a largely secular film and one that’s designed to make you feel good without feeling used. (Though after I took the narrative apart as I’ll demonstrate below, I did feel a bit manipulated.)
I’ll be watching it tonight with something red and festive and trying to find some holiday spirit.
I don’t mind writing synopses. In fact, I find writing synopses helpful.
If you write long-form fiction, you probably just said aloud, “That’s crazy.” If you don’t write fiction…this post might be confusing.
A little background: a synopsis is a short summary of what happens in a book. Not like a blurb (e.g., what you read on the back of the book), a synopsis runs through the major action and the beats of characterization. Synopses tend to be between 3 to 5 double-spaced pages in length, though I’ve heard they need to be longer if you’re pitching a project you haven’t written yet. You need a synopsis for contests, pitches, and queries and also when you turn in a manuscript.
Suffice it to say most writers rank writing synopses only slightly below getting a root canal on lists of their least favorite things to do. How do you take a 250 – 300 page book and reduce it to approximately 1000 words? If your beautiful plot could be condensed, wouldn’t you have condensed it in the first place?
