Friday Film Night - About a Boy

When you think of Hugh Grant and romantic comedy, the films that immediately spring to mind are NOTTING HILL, BRIDGET JONES' DIARY and FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL.

So where does ABOUT A BOY fit into the scheme of things?

This film, released in May 2002, spans genres: comedy, drama and romance.
I had heard little about it, usually a bonus when watching a film for the first time (no friends' preconceptions to sway you can sometimes be a good thing!)
Like books, I find movies very subjective and a rom-com I love may be one you hate.
With that in mind, here is my 'subjective' view on ABOUT A BOY.


Any film starring Hugh Grant as a shallow, self-serving womaniser who does anything to pick up women (including invent a 2 year old son Ned to attend SPAT-Single Parents Alone Together-and prey on sex-starved single mums) would capture my attention, particularly with the frequent forays into his internal POV which the audience is privvy to.
I had to cringe at his audacity while chuckling at his ingenuity.

Of course, playing a single parent has its downfalls and Will (Hugh) meets Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), a misfit 12 year old with major problems at school and a depressed mother at home (Toni Collette) who soon turns his world on its head.

The developing relationship between Will and Marcus is a delight to watch, with many laugh-out-loud moments. Though riddled with idiosyncrasies, Marcus is a great kid and you can't help but empathise with him. Through their bizarre friendship, Marcus learns what it's like to be cool and Will learns to be a better person, opening his heart to a world of possibilities.

Is this movie funny? You bet.
Is this movie dramatic? It has its moments.
Is this movie romantic? In parts.

Combine all of the above and you have a winner.
I actually cried towards the end (and no, it isn't when Will finally gets his act together with Rachel Weisz, the woman of his dreams) but a poignant scene featuring Marcus singing a song for his mum. Real tear-jerking stuff.

My feel-good rating: 7/10
Definitely worth seeing.

Enjoy,
Nicola
My blog
My website

Thursday Talk-time About Writing Contests!

If you’re a regular on romance blogs, boards, and sites, you’ve probably heard about writing contests. Perhaps you’ve toyed with the idea of entering some, or have actually done so. Maybe you’ve even won one—or more! But if you’re new to writing contests, it might be time to dip your toe in the water (or your pen in the ink).

Many writers hone their talent by entering contests. Others do it to spread their name. Some even get their big break from them. In our case, we each entered a Moonlit Romance writing contest earlier this year—and won!

When we wrote our entries we were each at different stages of our individual writing careers: Nell had a book out and contracts with more than one publisher, Rebecca had already won a contest that had resulted in publication, and Jessica was a complete contest newbie.

Nell says:

“I was thrilled to place in the contest. I’d wanted to write something fun and flirty and Dan, the hero of my story, implored me to write about him. I didn’t take much persuading, and he turned out to be one of my favourite heroes.”

Rebecca says: “I was still on a high from winning a different contest and felt confident enough to enter another. My characters took on a life of their own and my entry wrote itself in under a week. When I heard I’d been chosen as a winner, I was delighted.”

Jessica says:

“Nell told me about the contest and I was initially hesitant about entering because I had another project on the go. Eventually she persuaded me to rework something I’d started three years previously, so I started cutting, revising, and rewriting. I was gobsmacked (but very pleased!) to get placed.”

We came from diverse stages in our individual writing careers, with ideas in different shapes that were written in varying ways, but there was one common factor—we all worked hard to make our entries the best they could be. And in the end, each of our efforts resulted in publication and another step along the road of romance writing!

So what advice can we give, and how can you find a contest that’s right for you?

Our Top Ten Tips:

1. Know the rules and stick to them. This may sound obvious, but it’s surprising how many people miss an important piece of guidance that ends up invalidating their submission.
2. Present your entry properly. If there’s a specific format, follow it. If there isn’t, stick with the gold standard: 12pt Courier/Times New Roman font, double-spaced – and don’t forget page numbers!
3. Do not exceed the word count, even if you think it makes the story better, and make sure you don’t enter a vampire fantasy into a contest for inspirational stories! You’ll be wasting your time and the judges’.
4. Don’t “over-egg” your entry. If the contest requires a 5,000-word story, don’t try to cram in all the events, subplots, and characters of a 60,000-word novel.
5. Don’t push yourself. For example, if a contest focuses on a genre you’re not familiar with and you’re struggling, it may be best to get to know that genre better first.
6. Don’t wait until the last minute to send in your entry. This is especially important if you are entering a contest based in another country (as two of us did). Time zones also apply to emails!
7. Develop a thick skin. You may get bouquets, but you could just as easily receive brickbats.
8. Don’t become a ‘contest junkie’ and enter everything. Try to go for the contests that will bring you the most benefit, whether this is a chance for publication or a simple learning experience.
9. Leading on from this, determine what you want to get from a contest. If winning money is the answer, don’t enter. If you want to do it to increase your self-confidence, get feedback, get motivated, or simply because you love to write and have a story to tell, go for it!
10. Relax! Those who don’t get placed aren’t tarred and feathered. And most of all, keep writing!

Our Top Ten Contest Resources:

1. Writing organizations, e.g., RWA, whose Golden Heart and RITA contests are extremely popular. RWA chapters also run their own contests. Other writers’ associations, e.g., the Romantic Novelists’ Association (UK) or Romance Writers of Australia, also run contests.
2. Writerspace, a portal for readers and writers of romance, lists many contests.
3. Romance Junkies. This site runs an annual writing contest that regularly attracts hundreds of entries. Many entrants who have won or placed highly have gone on to publication.
4. eHarlequin (USA) and Mills and Boon (UK) also run occasional contests, varying from online reads and round robins to 1,000-word excerpts that could win you a meeting with an editor.
5. Your own eyes and ears. The online community will always know about an upcoming contest, so keep those feelers out.

We would love you to share your success stories and funny moments about entering writing contests! Have they helped or hindered? Which is your favourite? Tell all!

A big thanks to writers Nell Dixon, Jessica Raymond, and Rebecca Ruger for sharing their experiences on the subject of writing contests!

Fall in Love: An Anthology, featuring September Song by Nell Dixon, The Little Shop of Dreams by Jessica Raymond, and Autumn Splendor by Rebecca Ruger, is available now from Moonlit Romance (e-book or print-on-demand paperback).

And check out their websites for more on what they are up to post win!

Writers' Wednesday with Jenna Bayley-Burke

Modern Extra Sensual author

STUMBLING BLOCKS

Every time I sort through papers and folders I find one, a story I started and never had time to finish. I told myself it was lack of time, not that the story unraveled. I started and dropped stories all my life. I found one from high school that is especially dull. And yet, I knew I would be a writer. Someday. When I had the time.

October 2003 – With a three month old baby and a two year old underfoot, my husband got laid off. Severance, unemployment, food stamps, cash from his folks and groceries from mine got us over the hump until he found something else. But I felt helpless. I was nursing a baby and devoted to my toddler, I couldn’t get a job because with as much as my husband was interviewing he couldn’t watch the kids. Surely there had to be something I could do from home. I grabbed a notebook and a pen, writing a romance about a reality TV show while I nursed the baby. I could write it and sell it, and we’d still have a Christmas. Well…that’s not how it worked out. My husband was hired before the holidays and I started reading to my toddler while nursing instead of finishing the book.

August 2004 – I spent my tenth wedding anniversary in the ER, trying to find out if I was having an aneurysm. I thought of all the things I had planned for my life, and how many of them I wrote off as not having time. I also flashed on my boys someday finding my half finished stories and wondering why I never followed through.

November 2004 – High on pain medication and full of determination I signed on for National Novel Writers Month. I still didn’t have much time to write, but a plan to give me a novel in thirty days? Everyone had time for that. Thanks to my local support group (I love you Nikki) and my online friends (Suzan, you are a gem) I got through and ‘won’ with a 75,000 word ‘novel’. Completing the story was a high for me. And then came the crash.

December 2004 – What is a synopsis? A query? Dear God, why won’t they read my book and write me a check because it is just as good as the four I bough this month. Yeah, I had a LOT to learn about the publishing industry. Thanks to some very patient folks at eHarlequin, I got a crash course in Submitting 101 and sent off my first query to my favorite line of category romance. Slam dunk. Time to write another book.

January 2005 – I finished my second book, but still hadn’t heard on the first. I had to wait before submitting and began to focus on learning, taking free online classes wherever I could find them – eHarlequin, Romance Divas. Barnes & Noble University. I learned so much that by the time my first query was answered with a form rejection letter I wasn’t surprised. Heartbroken, but not shocked. And had a query for the second book in the mail the next day.

February 2005 – While waiting to hear on book two, I wrote a third.

March 2005 – Book two rejected, book three queried. I entered book one in a contest and used the feedback to revise it completely for a different line and submitted a partial.

May 2005 – Book three rejected, book four drafted.

June 2005 – I revised book two and the request for a full came in for book one. I did a happy dance in the middle of the street, then launched into a dozen rounds of ring-around-the-rosie in the front yard with my babes.

July 2005 – contested my manuscripts heavily. I got great feedback, but no wins. Queried book four.

August 2005 – revisions came in for book one, with some dynamite idea twists for the ending.

September 2005 – Got the email that was ‘the call’ My first book sold!

Jenna's first book, JUST ONE SPARK is available in the UK through Amazon and will be released in Australia as a Sexy Sensation in January 2007. Her next fab fun book, COOKING UP A STORM is a December release in the UK.

She is currently working hard on her third Modex title! She how's she's going at her blog.

Go Jenna!

Travelling Tuesday - The Ring Of Kerry

Welcome to The Kingdom Of Ireland...

And you couldn’t really call it anything else you know…My favourite place on the tiny island I call home is the world famous Ring of Kerry - meandering lazily around the Iveragh Peninsula with dramatic views as you look out across the surging Atlantic, rugged mountains and miles of beautiful sandy beaches and quiet coves.
The Ring of Kerry is part of a mystical & unspoilt region of Ireland that has attracted visitors for hundreds of years. Its spectacular beauty is beyond question and it is a natural centre for outdoor pursuits including golf, water-sports, cycling, walking, riding and the very best fishing for salmon & trout. It has some of the finest beaches in Europe, providing all the facilities for a traditional seaside holiday (though the weather’s not guaranteed you understand – just ask the players at the Ryder Cup this weekend past).

But above all the Ring of Kerry provides an amazing insight into the ancient heritage of Ireland - from Iron Age Forts & Ogham Stones to Old Monasteries and a landscape carved out of rock by the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago.

Have I tempted you to visit yet???

If I have, then you might need a few pointers… Like knowing the route starts from Killarney (think Jaunting Cars & Bustling Tourist favourite)- then heads around the Iveragh peninsula and passes through places like Kenmare, Sneem, Waterville, Cahersiveen and Killorglin. Most popular points along the way to stop and ooh and ahh would include Muckross House (near Killarney), Staigue Fort and Derrynane House or how about just south of Killarney to see Ross Castle, Lough Leane, and Ladies View (a panoramic viewpoint begging for you to be at the forefront of a digital pic you can beam to all your friends across the planet!) – and all of this located within Killarney National Park too…. Heaven…

STILL got some sight-seeing energy left? Really???

Well then, there’s also an established, walking path named The Kerry Way, which takes its own route or you can take a signposted Ring of Kerry cycling path which uses older quieter roads where possible. The Kerry Way is the longest (215km) signposted walking trail in the Republic of Ireland, and passes through some of the most beautiful scenic areas of the country. It crosses a wide variety of terrain but, due to ongoing land access issues, avoids climbing the highest peaks of the mountains as it roughly follows the scenic driving route of the Ring of Kerry.

And you can vary your route if you’re an off the beaten track kinda traveller – just think what you could be missing! There’s St. Finian's Bay and Valentia Island which the official driving ring misses (though the official cycling route takes in Valentia island)- And Valentia is so worth visiting. I loved it so much when I spent a week there on a tour of Ireland that it’s where I set my July 2007 Romance book – Bride Of The Emerald Isle – so for Category Romance enthusiasts it would be like an ‘on-set’ visit, wouldn’t it?

Just one last thing I would say before I ask “Why aren’t you booking your flights yet???” - "The Ring" is an extremely popular day trip destination and numerous bus companies offer trips during the summer months. As the narrow roads make it difficult for tour coaches to pass (or anything that isn’t a bicycle and a tour bus as it happens…or a car and a Jeep... or maybe even just two cars...), all tour buses run in an anti-clockwise (or counter-clockwise) direction, travelling via Killorglin first. This means that my tip for your visit would be that car owners/drivers travel in the opposite direction, going first to Kenmare to avoid delays caused by tour buses (which also cuts out the fact that you have to watch the bus on front of you the whole time... and the whole kids waving out of the back windows thing...). And be brave. Be very brave. They aren’t kidding when they say some of those roads are narrow… I like the park or stay still and let them sort themselves out method myself…

So, there you go… The Kingdom of Ireland…Anyone wanna come visit???

H's& K's
Trish

Trish's latest release in the Uk & Ireland is White-Hot!

She would love you to visit her Website where she does regular features on Ireland and the places behind her stories - and you can pop by her Blog to see where she's setting her next one...

Male on Monday - Chris Noth

I am here today to talk to you about Chris Noth. A man in my top five. Do you have a top five? A la Ross from Friends? Well this guy is one of mine...

In real life he is a New York actor who owns a nightclub called The Cutting Room. In our life he was better known as Carrie’s paramour Big from Sex in the City.

He holds a special place in my heart as he was the basis of my very first hero, Jacob Lincoln in THE WEDDING WISH. That dark hair, those smouldering eyes, that large imposing form, and that deep lazy voice. And don't you just love a guy who can smoke a cigar and look like he means it while filling out a suit just so?

Sigh...

I first discovered Chris Noth in Law and Order. He played Detective Mike Logan in the early days. And he was hot. Dark. A New Yorker. With that voice, that laconic charm. My perfect man really. The exact kind of guy I have made my hubby promise to come back as in our next life together. (For thse keeping score I have promised to come back Norwegian.) I tell you if he’d played a fire-fighter instead of a cop I would have split my seams each and every Monday night!

In my continuing love affair with Mr Noth, when I holidaying in LA in 1994, I stumbled upon an episode of Law and Order playing on the telly in my hotel room and I actually taped about 5 minutes on my video camera, that excited was I to see the guy. On TV. On a show I could watch back home in Aus. Nuts? I was nineteen, give me a break!

Then hotness himself disappeared from my radar for a few years. Very sad. I was forced to turn to real live men around me.

But then, all of a sudden, he turned up as Big in Sex in the City. Boy was I was in heaven! He still looked great, and still does not ten odd years on. that bone structure, that dark hair, those ageless good looks. And as that character, Mr Noth has created an argument that spread over water coolers and bar stools the world over. Said argument has never truly been settled even today.

The big question? Big or Aidan? Big, the aloof, rich, prince of New York or Aidan the furniture designer with the gorgeous fluffy dog and the sweet nature. It’s the age old battle between the Alpha and the Beta. It’s the Spkie versus Angel argument all over again (btw, the answer to that one is Spike, hands down).

From day dot I was a Big girl. Sure Aidan was lovely, he was sweet, and kind and handy and he loved Carrie and proposed and looked after her and bought her an apartment and had a nice dog. While on the other hand Big was brash, unfaithful, detached, smug, retro, cocky, and always just out of reach. And I looooved him. No more so than in that moment at the end of the first episode when Carrie asked him if he had ever been in love. His answer? A cocky grin and the words ''Abso-f---in'-lutely.''

Is it the bad boy thing? Is it the fact that he is unattainable? Is it the dark haired Irish New Yorker thing that gets me everytime? Or, as my poor husband procliams in fits of what-are-you-on, is it because he was quite simply a bastard? I just don’t know.

All I know is that for me Big was the perfect foil to the lovelorn, difficult, complicated, romantic Carrie. He was cheeky, sly, gorgeous, aloof, a fantasy and the worst kind of hell all in one. They loved, and fought, and laughed, and hurt one another and kept coming back for more. Of all the lives in all the world he had to walk into hers. And she was forever lost. Nobody could ever compare. He was New York. She was New York. The city crossed their stars and that was that. And it fair breaks my heart and makes my heart to even think about it.

Anyhoo, before I disappear into a Chris Noth inspired pile of wobbly mush and thus have no more strength in my fingers to type, I hereby induct him into the Pink Heart Hero Hall of Fame.

Chris Noth – I salute you!

Ally's latest book, WANTED: OUTBACK WIFE, is available now online and is in stores this October!

In it she has her first "blondish" hero which for a girl who obviously likes tall dark and handsome was harder than writing about a new setting!

http://www.allyblake.com

http://allyblake.blogspot.com

Sunday Spotlight - Natasha Oakley

Our spotlight is being shone this week on one of our Pink Heart Society Editors and Harlequin Romance author, Natasha Oakley who has a book out this launch month for the new line which will merge with Silhouette Romance in February 2007. In the past year she has been nominated for both the Cataromance Reviewers Choice Award for Tender Romance and the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice awards for Best Harlequin Romance and Best First Series Romance.

FIRST UP, NATASHA TELLS US:

In 1991 I married my husband and we decided to start our family. I must have harboured some kind of daft idea that I would have a baby, put it in a papoose and carry on pretty much as before with my acting career. Not surprisingly it didn't quite work out that way. I hadn't realised quite how powerful mother-love is. I had five children in six years, working only very briefly during this time. I now live in Bedfordshire with my husband and my children. I love antique fairs, collect kitchenalia, paint in watercolour, and am a signer for the deaf (BSL). My house is in a constant state of disarray but I make great cakes, write books and no one seems to mind.

UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT!

Where do you get the inspiration for your books from?

I think authors must have their brains wired differently from other people because anything and everything has the potential to spark an idea which will eventually become a book.

Often it’s a combination of things. For example, my heroine in ‘Accepting the Boss’s Proposal’ is a single mum who’s struggling to pick up her life after her husband traded her in for a new and improved model. Sadly, that’s a situation several of my girlfriends are currently in and I know that influenced my creation of Jemima. The choice of Myles’s car came about because I read a magazine in the hairdressers’.

Books are a real melting pot of ideas. And, more often than not, I reckon it’s better not to think too much about where ideas come from. It’s magic!

What makes you mad?

I’ve become a real ‘grumpy old woman’. So much makes me mad.
- Dog owners who don’t clear up after their pet.
- Teenagers who spit on the ground.
- Blogger not accepting my pictures.
- Shop assistants who carry on their own conversations when there are customers waiting.
- Lazy reporters who use Mills & Boon as a generic term for all that’s bad in romantic fiction.
- So much plastic packaging round food in supermarkets.
- Inconsiderate parking.
- Being left hanging on the telephone – then having to speak to someone who doesn’t speak English and can’t possibly help me.
- People who drop litter.
- People who jump a queue.
- Filling out my tax return.
- In fact, filling out any government form.
- Supermarket trolleys with wonky wheels.

I could go on …

What’s the most romantic thing that has ever happened to you?

The most romantic times have been the unexpected and ‘fun’ ones.
I’ve loved eating chips from paper cone on a beach front where horse and carriage owners were racing across the sand. Or the time I ate a hot roast beef and stilton baguette on the roof of a narrow boat. Maybe even the time I sat on the step of the Stephensdom in Vienna …
It’s more about the person you’re with, I think – and the way they made you feel.

What in a hero makes you drool?

Glinting eyes and long artistic fingers are my personal preference. I also like to feel that he’d be the kind of man standing in the heroine’s corner whatever life throws at them.

If you weren’t a writer what would you be?

I don’t honestly know at this point. My husband’s cancer has returned to pay us another visit so I suspect I wouldn’t be doing anything much. Longer term I may have pursued the idea of being an interpreter for the deaf and combined that with theatre.

What do you do to relax and wind down?

A glass of wine, a great book and a long soak in a hot bubble bath is my first choice.

How do you get out of a writing rut?

Have a sleep. Often I just need to give my subconscious time to work.

If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

I like where I’ve landed. I love being within easy rich of London, near my family and surrounded by open countryside. I think I have the best of all worlds here.

Who would you most like to give a hug to for a fabulous book you've read?

Jessica Hart for ‘The Convenient Fiancee’. It was the first Mills & Boon book I ever read and, I can honestly say, it changed my perception of category fiction and consequently my life.

What music do you listen to when writing?

None. I find it very distracting.

Tell us a secret nobody knows about you?

No. Not doing it. It's a secret...

What was your most embarrassing moment?

It’s difficult to choose one just one, but I think it has to be the time I fell out of my dress during a matinee performance of ‘Taming of the Shrew’.

I was playing ‘The Widow’ in a winch-me-in pop-out-the-top dress and, during a celebratory dance when both my hands were held by other actors, I did just that – popped out the top. Which left me in a bit of a quandary. Either I had to draw attention to myself by pulling my hands out of theirs to deal with the problem. Or I had to pretend all was well and finish the dance.
So, I decided to finish the dance. Only, as we formed a pretty circle, one of the actors whispered, ‘Don’t worry, darling. We’re not looking.’ V- e-r-y embarrassing I thought! And that’s not even beginning to think about the audience.
.

What have you had to celebrate in the last year?

That’s a difficult one. This year has been hard. But I’m hugely proud of my children and what they’ve achieved. I’m also thrilled to be one of the authors launching the new ‘Romance’ line.

What’s beside your computer when you’re writing?

The cooker timer – so I don’t forget the school pick-up.
A fan – because it’s been a hot summer.
A mug of coffee – because I have an addiction.
A print-out of what I’ve written so far – I’m a tidy kind of writer and I like what I’ve already got to be kind-of tight before I move on.

If you could kiss anyone in the world who would it be?

Discounting the person I can kiss anytime I want – I’m going to choose Alan Rickman because he has the sexiest voice of any man I’ve ever heard. Or maybe Johnny Depp because I reckon that would be fun. Or Hugh Jackman because we’ve been talking about him so much!

What are you working on now?

Willow’s Story. She’s a bad girl come good … and I really,

really like her. If I were casting her in a film I would give the role to Sienna Miller and I’m letting Luke Wilson and Hugh

Jackman fight it out for the role of Daniel.

Natasha would love for you to visit her at her website or her Blog

And for more about her new book, check out her publisher's website.

Thanks Natasha!

And watch this space Pink Heart-er's 'cos we have some Huge Names from the world of Category Romance coming your way in October!!!!