by Charlene Teglia | Jun 12, 2005 | Uncategorized
The husband picked this movie because we both loved Jason Statham in The Italian Job and The Transporter. We’d never heard of Cellular, knew nothing about it, hadn’t even seen a trailer for it. All we knew was: Jason Statham plays a bad guy.
So we sit down to watch it after putting the toddler to bed for the night and I figure if it’s a total dog I’ll just read my book.
About 10 minutes in the book is on the floor, I’m white-knuckled and hyperventilating, and this movie has me by the throat. The start is just slow enough to reveal enough about Jessica (Kim Basinger) to make me care about what’s happening to her. But it pretty much starts with a bang and doesn’t let up until the very end. Twist after twist, this story ratchets up the tension and catapults you forward. The pacing is perfect; it never drags and the suspense never lets up.
It’s not a romantic movie; the romance in the story is off to the side in two subplots, the relationship between Jessica and her husband and the relationship between Ryan, Jessica’s accidental hero, and his estranged girlfriend Chloe. Although Jessica is the one in jeopardy from the very beginning, it’s really Ryan’s story; an average guy who finds himself in an extraordinary situation. From the moment he becomes involved, I knew exactly how much depended on his success. As the plot exploded I knew exactly how unlikely it was that he’d succeed. The odds diminished with every new revelation.
If you like suspense that leaves you breathless and a pace that never falters peopled by a cast of characters you care about, this is one fantastic movie. Oh, and Statham as a bad guy? Genuinely scary. Although I’m looking forward to his comic return as Handsome Rob in the sequal to The Italian Job (coming in 2006).
by Charlene Teglia | Jun 12, 2005 | Uncategorized
I’m all serioused out. So to fulfill my need for meaningless blog fun, here are some entertaining searches that showed up in my webstats:
Cherry Poptart comics: Sorry, I don’t have any. Wonder if they’re still being published?
Soundproof trunk: It’s imaginary, but it’s where I keep my heroes while they wait their turn in the writing schedule. Jake created a lot of trouble when he broke into it. How far has word of this debacle spread?
Billy bumbler images: I got nothin’ except the illustrations in the Dark Tower books. Which are not reproduced anywhere on my site. Now I suddenly want to search on billy bumbler images.
And the number one search result: people actually searching for ME! How ’bout that.
by Charlene Teglia | Jun 12, 2005 | Uncategorized
The latest RWA response over Graphical Standards is posted here. I’ll just address the part that asks why those of us who blogged publicly about the topic are not now leaping to withdraw our complaints, now that they’ve heard the response to the GS decision.
First off, there’s the backpedaling and, well, dishonesty seems to be the only right word, about the introduction of the Graphical Standards in the first place. For a real eye-opener, see Cheyenne McCray’s letter regarding the information she was given and acted on in good faith as an RWA chapter president.
Secondly, I don’t see how it’s over. Yes, the GS are suspended; sort of. But not really. Writers are left with vague warnings that some material may be considered inappropriate, some ads for the RWR may be denied, lots of fog and vapor in terms of guidelines for RWA members to follow. An ad hoc committee is going to write new, improved Graphical Standards, and like Lee Goldberg, I’m boggled as to why a writer’s organization thinks these are needed in the first place.
Lastly and most disturbingly, there’s that reference to US Postal regulations regarding pornography in the same breath as romance as the standard to follow until the new, improved GS is finalized. I expect the usual confusion from the general public as to the difference between porn and romance. But I can tell the difference, I expect any writer of romance to understand the difference, and I really expect a writer’s organization devoted to the romance genre to know the difference.
I really think this idea to police the genre began with the unfortunate article written by Ethan Ellenberg and published in the RWR last fall. Maybe he meant well, I don’t know, but I was astounded by that article, by the fact that the RWR printed it, and I’m further astounded that the organization seems to be taking seriously the idea that it should take on this role of genre watchdog.
Romance is an industry by and for adults. Yes, there are YA romances, but they’re vastly different. Even when written by authors who also write for adults, the material is vastly different. Adult romances should not suffer restrictions because there are young readers in the YA market. The books aren’t even shelved in the same section in bookstores or libraries. And adults do not need to be protected from books. Adults are capable of deciding what they do and don’t want to read, what they do and don’t want to be exposed to, and if any glimpse of bare flesh or a couple in a clinch is out of bounds to a reader or a writer, why are they in the romance genre to begin with? Love them or hate them, clinch covers are a staple of the industry. Personally, I find them more interesting than the flowered covers.
RWA decides what publishers meet their criteria for recognition and therefore representation in RWA venues, from ads in the RWR to the RITA awards. It is ridiculous to grant recognition to a publisher, PAN membership status to authors of that publisher, and then block those authors from having their books represented in RWA venues on the grounds that they don’t meet “graphical standards”.
Unless the new graphical standards are a whole lot better than the original set, they’re going to block a whole lot of books from a whole lot of publishers. And they’re going to lead to a whole lot of writers paying their membership dues only to be denied participation in RWA venues that their dues pay for. I don’t see how that’s going to lead to good things among the membership.
So why am I still harping about this topic when we’ve established I’m not renewing my RWA membership? Because I see this as something with potential for enormous impact outside of RWA. I see it as a really bad idea that could start a really bad trend. Censorship is a slippery slope and it doesn’t take many steps down it with all the best of intentions to slide all the way to the bottom to a point where somebody has the power to dictate what writers can write and what publishers can publish.
by Charlene Teglia | Jun 10, 2005 | Uncategorized
Taught my toddler to do the YMCA yesterday! She loves to dance and it was the fussy end of the day stage, sooo…out came The Village People. She’s pretty good at it. (Hey, it’s educational. We’ve been working on ABCs and she can sing the alphabet song, too. It’s just a dance with letters!)
And there are now two interviews with yours truly unleashed on an unsuspecting world. You can read them at Romance Junkies (next to Sasha’s interview with her totally hot photo!) and Enchanted in Romance.
Editing to add: Enchanted in Romance also has a new review of Dangerous Games. 5 Unicorns but could be considered massive story spoilers so read at your own risk. It’s really an excellent review, though. Thank you, Lyonene!
by Charlene Teglia | Jun 10, 2005 | Uncategorized
7:12 a.m. Hours to go before the toddler sleeps, at which point I can shut my eyes for a few minutes, too. What’s the tired undercaffinated blogger to do? Blog about naps. Hey, naps are part of the creative life. Don’t laugh.
Think about that state you wake up in; not quite fully awake, still a little dreamy, imagination roaming. The mind is in the perfect state for running through images from the past night’s dreams and mulling them over or spinning out a little scene from a story or turning over some problem and seeing a unique solution to it. The half-asleep mind is suggestive, imaginative and valuable.
Same thing when you lay down for a nap in the middle of the day. Even if you don’t sleep, a few minutes of letting the mind quiet, letting go of all the day’s busyness and gotta dos and stresses and getting into that relaxed, drifty state of mind where anything seems possible can change the entire rest of the day. You see more options. Ideas come. And you go back to the day refreshed, with a new perspective.
For a good book on how naps can refuel your creative life, I recommend “Change Your Life Without Getting Out of Bed” by SARK. Lots of good points to ponder during your next nap attack, and the drawings are fun, too.
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