The Pink Heart Society: 2007-03-25

Saturday, March 31, 2007

March Hamper! Free book giveaway...and more!!!

This month we have a prize pack that will knock your socks off. Books by fabulous PHS members galore! And you think a bunch of signed books is fabulous? Well there's that too, but...how about the chance to have your very own Male on Monday slot in April!!!

Now, we here at the Pink Heart Society guard these slots with our lives. We have only EVER given away two in the history of the PHS and only because some very nice authors begged and pleaded and lathered us with gifts and platitudes and great wads of chocolate.

All you have to do is tell us:

Who would you pick for your Male on Monday slot and why?

Hamper Prize:

Dr Constantine's Bride by Jennfier Taylor (Medical)

Innocence & Impropriety by Diane Gaston (Historical)

The Surgeon's Chosen Wife by Fiona Lowe (Medical)

Two-Week Mistress by Nicola Marsh (Modern Extra)

In the Gardener's Bed by Kate Hardy (Modern Extra)

Plus… a whole bundle of scintillating, sexy, sassy, hot under the collar Blaze books to coincide with our Yahoo Group Blaze party running from 2nd of April to the 7th:

Private Confessions by Lori Borril

A Breath Away by Wendy Etherington

Take On Me by Sarah Mayberry

Room Service by Jill Shalvis

With His Touch by Dawn Atkins

Don't Look Back by Joanne Rock

Just One Taste by Wendy Etherington

Asking For Trouble by Leslie Kelly

Fear of Falling by Cindi Myers

To win all these goodies plus the chance to put together your own Male On Monday slot next month, answer the above question. And to join the Blaze gals listed here, and more, come along to our yahoo group from the 2nd to the 7th of April with questions in hand!!! If you’re not a member of our group, join up here...

Hugs and kisses,

Ally, Jenna, Natasha, Nicola and Trish

x x x

Friday Film-Night - Paperback Hero

Anne McAllister and Kate Walker took Hugh Jackman appreciation to a whole new level at romance writer conferences in Australia and New Zealand a while back. But if you missed Hugh-in-a-towel, Anne is here to tell you that you really need to catch him in this!

Paperback Hero

...is a romantic comedy that makes me smile every time I watch it. And I watch it a lot. Of course it stars Hugh Jackman, and that immediately puts it on my A list. But it gets better because Hugh plays Jack Willis, a tough, happy-go-lucky Aussie truck driver -- who just happens to write romance novels.

Now I ask you, what's not to like?

Writing romance novels does not, as you might imagine, go very well with an Australian outback 'man's man' image. In fact no one, except his dog Lance, knows Jack writes at all. He uses a pseudonym and no one is the wiser -- until the book becomes a best seller, and all of a sudden his publishers want to meet their new hit author, Ruby Vale.

Uh-oh. Because Ruby just happens to be real. She also happens to be the girl Jack has known -- and teased -- forever.

Ruby is a "cussing, fiery Aussie bush chick," according to Claudia Karvan who plays her. And it's clear from the moment she buzzes his rig with her crop dusting plane that Ruby is going to be every bit Jack's equal and is determined to give as good as she gets. Besides her crop dusting business, Ruby runs the Boomerang Cafe in rough-and-ready Lucktown. She is tough and capable and sure of herself -- in everything except matters of the heart.

Just like Jack.

In fact there has been a teasing sniping war -- and an unacknowledged attraction --going on between Ruby and Jack for years. In his book by the same name, Antony Bowman, who both wrote and directed Paperback Hero, tells a bit about their history that never makes it into the film. It doesn't matter. You feel it. The simmer of desire. The heat. The awareness.

But neither admits it. Neither dares. Jack goes his own way, and Ruby hers. She, in fact, has gone so far as to get engaged to Jack's friend Hamish. But somehow the wedding keeps getting postponed.

Then Jack's editor, big-city-chick Ziggy Keane turns up, in a wonderful comic performance by Angie Milliken, and all of a sudden nothing is the same.

Jack has to 'fess up and tell Ruby he's appropriated her name. Then he has to convince her to be the author of his book. Then he has to bribe her to go to Sydney for a publicity and marketing campaign. One thing leads to another as one thing often does.

It's a romance novel come to the screen. And as a romance novel, we all know how it ends -- happily ever after. You don't have to watch it for that.

You have to watch it to enjoy the repartee between Jack and Ruby, the awkward tentative dance toward emotional intimacy that delights and charms. You have to watch it for the characters in the Boomerang cafe, the black widow decor in Ziggy's apartment, the completely perfect way Jack finally proclaims his love at the end.

You have to watch it so you can be dazzled by Hugh's energy, his charm, his intensity, his grin -- everything that adds up to 'star power' that was evident even then.

There is wonderful chemistry between Jack and Ruby. There is terrific chemistry among the many of the characters in Lucktown who are eccentric, yet ultimately believable. They have stories that exist beyond the slightness of their roles. And while it is the story of Jack and Ruby that is central, the film does more than focus on them. It spotlights a particular culture and a universal emotion at the same time and does justice to them both.

The DVD is available in Region 4 and Region 2 (that would be Down Under, Mexico, South America, Europe -- minus France -- and a few sundry other places). There might be some copies kicking around North America (I've spotted some on amazon.com) but I'm not sure it was ever officially released here.

This is too bad, because it ought to be required watching for all romance authors and readers. It has appeared on some North American television channel in an "edited" form. That's better than nothing, but not as good as the original.

If you can't get anything else here is a clip of Jack and Ruby singing "Cryin'" from YouTube.

It will whet your appetite. It's too bad it stops before they got to the next bit -- when they were walking back to the hotel carrying their prize -- a frozen turkey.

Warm and fuzzy rating: 10 (need you ask?)

Anne's latest book, The Santorini Bride, is a March title in Australia and New Zealand. It was a February Presents and Modern. Watch for its spin-off, The Boss's Wife For A Week, coming in October in the US.

Find out more about both books on Anne's blog or her website, which is supposed to be revamped sometime in April (every once in a while Hugh-in-a-towel makes an appearance!!) And today she has featured a fanvid from YouTube with clips from Paperback Hero.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Thursday Talk Time - RITA congratulations!!

Romance writers over the globe waited impatiently this week as the calls went out, announcing the RITA finalists for this years awards. Named in honor of the first RWA president, Rita Clay Estrada, this golden statuette symbolizes the best romance has to offer. Over a thousand books are entered, judges (other romance authors) narrow the field to just 100 or so, and calls go out. At the RWA National Conference in Dallas this July, the twelve winners will be announced.

Here at The Pink Heart Society, we'd like to take a moment to congratulate the category authors who made the cut...and chat up the books that we've read!

2007 RITA for Best First Book Finalists