Singing and Dancing

I’ve been sitting here watching August Rush on cable. Not much of a story, but I love the music. I love movies with music as a theme. Current musicals are touchy, though. I don’t automatically like them, whereas, I have always enjoyed musicals from the forties through the sixties.

Why is that? I suppose we don’t grow actor /singers / dancers like the old days. What we have is on Broadway and a Broadway voices tend to be less intimate. Where are the Gene Kelly’s and Bing Crosby’s. I miss those kinds of movies. I want a little fantasy, where people sing when they are sad or happy. My favorite is White Christmas. Huge fan of Danny Kay.

I also like dance movies. I adored the Australian movie, Strictly Ballroom. OMG, I never laughed so hard, and the dancing was superb. I watched the Japanese version of Shall We Dance a dozen times before it came out with Lopez and Gere. I prefer the original. Even the B movie dance company movies suck me in…and yes I do watch So You Think You Can Dance…not the other one. I want to see real dancers, not mediocre dancers.

I hate to even admit this, because there are people I know who would shoot me for saying this, but I never really liked Sound Of Music. Yes, I’m a freak. I’ll watch any dance movie that comes my way. I don’t always like them, but I will watch it once to discover it’s quality .

What is you favorite Musical or dance related movie.

Rhianna

Soul Mate, Life Mate, Lover...what do you call it?

I have been working on a paranormal/urban fantasy series. The world is complete and I’ve played with the characters long enough to have my favorites, several favorites in fact. What concerns me is the heat level I am writing. You see, I would have never considered myself a writer of erotica. And yet, I am writing fully fleshed erotica.

Urban fantasy has given me license to write sex to the extreme. The focus is on the creatures that populate this particular world, and though varied, they share a common challenge. I’ll save that bit of information for the story, so you can enjoy the series.

In concert with this series, I am continuing to write my historical, which includes sex, but less extreme in its depiction. The level of heat is relative to the passion that is expressed by these particular human characters. Don’t worry, they are passionate.

All this talk of passion and sex has brought to mind, the sort of universal belief that we are all meant to find that one person who will bring us fulfillment. Every romance novel, no matter the genre, has a term for it, soul mate, life mate, the fated love of our lives that brings us complete communion with someone and allows that HEA. Hey, I’m a sucker for the HEA. I’ll never read an author again if I am led to believe throughout the story that the hero and heroine are meant for each other and don’t get their HEA. When I am denied that, I am a very unhappy reader.

Writers have become creative in the terminology they use to define The One. It is somehow tied to the mythology of the world they are writing. Yes, even I have teased my brain trying to come up with a new term for it.

I thought it might be fun for us to create a new term for that one and only. I’ll even use it in my urban fantasy book, either as a throw away line used humorously or something more substantial.

Go ahead dazzle me and -uck buddy and sex slave doesn’t count.

Rhianna

The Last Ten Days

Whew! Long, action packed week. It began with a rather impressive disaster drill. I’m on the disaster committee, which includes those of us who are part of the..What if the worst possible thing were to happen club. In this case it was an earthquake and we had 80 excited volunteers. All, but one of them, were mualaged to within an inch of their lives, some further-the dead ones.
We decided to work in a factory line way. I was assigned blood. Pretty much everyone got blood on them. There were the amputations and fractures line, the laceration line, the deathly pale line, dirt line and blood line. I always get the most fun things to do. (Mauahahaha!)


The day job took up most of my energy. Not only the disaster drill, but the folks that complete accreditation for the hospital also chose that same week to come and purview the premises. That was fun - *not*, though it appears it went well for my department. They were impressed by the disaster drill though.


As part of my other job… is it a job or still a wish? As for the writer portion of my brain, I volunteered to judge for the Eppies. I was impressed by the quality of the material I was sent. I finished up all but one by Sunday night and the last today. I have become a new fan of one particular author, which is good, but bad for my time, because I will need to read all the other books in the backlist now.


Did I tell you I had to reformat my computer a couple of weeks ago. Nasty virus and it killed me to have to do it. Now, I still can’t find my PDF creator to put back on and I never found my Dragon speaking, which I did use, a fair amount. I gave up and bought the newest version of Dragon Speaking and have decided I will put off the other for a time.


I’ve been watching the True Blood HBO series and would recommend it to anyone who loves vampires. I read all the books since the first one came out, so I’ve come to terms with how I saw it in my head while reading it and what Allan Ball is doing with the characters. The brother Jason is definitely more visible in this venue. And I do mean VISABLE, my my…sweet cheeks. Bill is much more than I remember from the books, though I will tell you now, that I fell in love with Eric the moment he appeared in the books. His sense of humor and honest way of saying exactly what he wants, always cracks me up. Of course after book four, I am totally for him as Sookie’s one and only. I choose to ignore all the other males that crowd her space. I think I scared off Charlaine Harris, the writer of the books, at the RT convention several years ago. I kept appearing up every time she turned around. I would stalk her if she’d move here to southern Indiana.


You all have a lovely week and I’ll be blogging again soon.


Tell me about your week.


Rhianna

Persuation

MY WEBMASTER



It’s quiet now. There’s no sound but for the low hum of the computer fan. I sat down in front of this rectangular machine to blog about…what? I don’t know really. I considered a half dozen topics.


I have been warned to stay away from politics, and in all honestly I haven’t much to say on the subject. I’m not a fan of either candidate. And in truth, no one that even entered the nominations this year seemed like they were there without an agenda.


I am smirking because a couple of weeks ago I was at Sam’s Club and saw this book and I just had to buy it. It’s Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Green Book of Getting Your Way. I’ll admit that I haven’t read the whole thing. When he started talking about putting in the time and energy and being positive all the time, well I figured I know that and had been looking for a short cut. Just like when I hear about a new diet, I want a short cut, not life changes. If I am doing the work, then I’m not getting my way, I’m making progress.


One of the things he talks about in order to be persuasive is that you must make the person you are trying to persuade believe that the topic is important to them. Get to the point and don’t give a lot of tedious details in your initial presentation.


As a Nurse, I learned to do that a long time ago when I give the patient his discharge instructions, it’s all about what is essential for them to know to get healthy and stay that way. Most of the time, they are already motivated to do as they are instructed.


As a writer, I have to write something they want to read. Beyond even that, I have to actually write the novel and persuade an editor or publisher that it is worth their time to even consider. It’s funny because in my head I can hear every line I’ve ever had used on me to convince me to have sex with someone.


Why do you think it is that we must be persuaded to do so many things. How many of you will freely admit that when it came to a sexual relationship with someone you cared about and chemistry abounded that you didn’t need to be persuaded. You chose without any excuses or arguments. My hand is raised.


Can you also say that you don’t have to be persuaded to do the right thing, to be a good Samaritan or show your humanity. It’s not my intent to persuade you of anything, only to reflect upon it.

Rhianna