No Autographs, Please!

Ah, fame. It can be such a burden. The paparazzi hanging around my front door all the time. The complete lack of privacy for even the most mundane things. My picture in the newspaper. It's never ending.

Okay, snap out of it! Yes, my picture was in the paper this morning. But I was changing the kitty litter when I remembered to go pick it up. That's the glorious life of the romance novelist. Kitty litter one minute, sequins and glitter the next. Or something like that.

THE TAMPA TRIBUNE runs a weekly feature in its Friday entertainment section called, "Five Minutes With..." Today it's five minutes with me. Imagine that!

The interview part was fun. The books editor, Kevin Walker, has been an acquaintance for many years. He used to do a little Friday morning trivia thing, generally about books, music or movies. If you know me, you know I'm obsessive with trivia-type contests. It's so bad that my friends refuse to play SCENE IT with me. Even if it's ALL of them against just me by myself.

So I began emailing with Kevin a long time ago with comments about his trivia questions and always trying to win the coveted Bobo the Dog T-shirt. He's such a personable guy, and so interested in pop culture, that it was more like having a drink with a buddy than being grilled by a journalist. Of course, that's what they WANT you to think.

But I really do enjoy talking with Kevin, and I'm very pleased with the feature in today's paper. The photograph - now THAT was the scary part. But it's not too bad. I wish my hair looked better. I wish I was ten years younger. I wish I weighed twenty pounds less.

I also wish I had the winning lottery numbers, but that's not going to happen either.

Now here's the really intriguing part. I've lived in this city since I was five years old. Virtually EVERYONE I know reads this newspaper. Let's see how many of them call me or email me after reading this today. I especially hope ALL my ex-boyfriends see it.

Okay, that's it. My fifteen minutes are up.

Have a great day!
Susan

Why I Get My Nails Done

I was thinking about this. It's something I've been doing every two weeks for more than a decade. That's almost longer than I was married. What's the reason? Here are a few:

* I love Michelle. She's been painting my nails since shortly before her twenty-first birthday. She's now in her thirties with two adorable children ten and eight years old. She's about the same age as my nieces, who I also love, but I wouldn't let them touch my fingers with electrical equipment! I've been with Michelle through a miscarriage, two pregnancies, the loss of her father, several homes and two salons. She's one of my favorite people AND she loves the Beatles!

* It's one of the cheaper things you can do from a beauty standpoint. Do you know how much it costs to cut and color hair these days? Facials and massages are quite pricey too. You can get your nails done for about the price of a movie with soda and popcorn.

* I like the names of the colors. Who can turn down "I'm Not Really A Waitress" ??? Or "Vampire State Building." When I choose my color each time, I first look at the bottle, but I won't pick it unless I also like the title. How do I get the job of thinking up the names? Wouldn't that be great!

* I like the sound they make when they click on the keyboard. I'm easy to amuse.

* My ex-husband wouldn't "let" me get my nails done. Easy to see why he's an ex, right?

I could probably come up with a few more reasons, but I don't want to be late for my appointment!

Have a great day.
Susan

"Love is now the stardust..."

Great old song recorded by a lot of people, but probably most notably, Nat King Cole. If you've never heard it, you should find it and listen to it.

But it's Stardust the movie I've come to talk about today.

First of all, Michelle Pfeiffer must have one heck of an agent! Having not seen much of her in a while, I suddenly find her running away with two movies in a row for me. First it was the Barbe-doll type stage mother in HAIRSPRAY, now it's a four hundred year-old witch in STARDUST. She's very good, by the way. The girl does a fine cackle.

Second, what is it with all the macho male movie stars wanting to dress in women's clothing lately? Is this the same Robert DeNiro who brilliantly portrayed Jake La Motta, Al Capone and a young (and frightening) Vito Coreleone? Wearing dance-hall girl clothing and flirting with him/herself in front of a mirror? That scene alone is worth the price of admission.

But that statement shortchanges the rest of the film, which is full of laughter, romance, adventure, magic, falling stars and a kidnapped princess. I had read about the book by Neil Gamain a couple of months ago, and in fact it's sitting on my Amazon wish list right now. But I'm out of the pop culture loop these days, so I didn't know anything about the movie until a few days ago. I'm really glad I made the connection.

It's the kind of film that makes me glad I'm a writer. I always enjoy a story that inspires me to go home and work harder.

So I'm off to work now. I hope you'll go see this movie. And I hope you'll listen to Nat King Cole. A different kind of magic there.

Have a magical day.
Susan

We're All in This Together

Disney does it again. Yes, I am eagerly awaiting tonight's premiere of High School Musical 2. Me and about 20 Million other eight year old girls. What? I'm NOT an eight year old girl? Are you sure? Have you seen my Barbie collection?

Okay, maybe I am an adult whose children aren't even that young, but I can still be a kid in my heart, and I will be tonight when I watch the new movie. There are a lot of things to love about High School Musical. No, the music isn't the best I've ever heard, but it is light and cheerful, and I do find myself humming it long after it's left the radio or tv.

How about the message? In a world where children are filled with neuroses and angst, how about a movie that says, Do your own thing? The Skaters, The Athletes, The Brainiacs, The Drama Club all get together in this one, and they all respect each other's feelings and desires. Well, all except for Sharpay, the Cruellea D'HighSchool. But what's a Disney movie without a villain?

Then there are all the nods to movies of the past. There's a little bit of Romeo and Juliet - teens dating outside their own little circle. There's a piece of Grease - they meet on vacation then find themselves in the same school. And doesn't Alyson Reed as Darbus remind you of Eve Arden's Principal McGee? A little bit? Finally, we have big ol' Busby Berkley type dance numbers.

Yes, I'm looking forward to it, and I don't apologize. I do, after all, own the DVD of the first one. Not just the DVD of the movie. I have the Dance-Along version. Yes, it's true. Late at night, in the privacy of my own bedroom where absolutely no one can see me, I do the Wildcat Breakdown. Go Wildcats! Getcha head in the game!

Have a musical day!
Susan

Elvis Is Still Dead

When we were little girls, my sister and I spent our Sunday afternoons lying on the floor in front of the radio. This wasn't some small transistor type thing, or even one the size of my Bose that sits here on my desk, smaller than a breadbox. No, this radio was a piece of furniture. Huge. Something like this:



Every Sunday they had a call-in competition.People would vote for their favorite artist, then the station would play records by the winner all the rest of the afternoon. The winner was always Elvis. Pat Boone made it a decent race some of the time, but the King was always, well, The King.

I was a little too young for Elvis. But my sister....I think she still loves him. When she got married in 1969, she chose August 16. By coincidence, it happened to be the wedding anniversary of both sets of our grandparents. That's not why she chose it, although it makes a touching story. No, her date was mostly dictated by the United States Air Force.

Fast forward to 1977. We were preparing for my wedding which would take place in early September. I remember being at my mother's house with my sister when we heard about Elvis. "But it's my anniversary!" she lamented. Well, she can drink a toast to The King when her husband takes her out for dinner.

Or, she could hold with the philosophy of another friend of mine who wears a button which reads, "Elvis isn't dead till I say he's dead!"

Long Live The King.
Susan

It Was Fifty Years Ago...

If 1967 was the summer of love, then 1957 must have been the summer of birth. Two things happened fifty years ago this summer that are particularly noteworthy.



In 1957 ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac was released. It is a rambling semi-autobiographical novel about two guys who hit the road. But it's really about much more than that. Many people call it the birth of the Beat generation, the anthem of Baby Boomers all across America who questioned everything their parents fought and died for in a cruel and ugly war.



Also in July, 1957, a little known skiffle group called The Quarrymen played a one-hour engagement at an English Garden Party. Little noteworthy about that, except for the fact that a fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney took his guitar along to meet these Quarrymen, led by a sixteen-year-old fellow named John Lennon. I doubt that lightning bolts shot down from the heavens. There was no cracking in the earth's crust. Just two blokes who'd heard of each other and sat down to play few tunes together.

The rest, as they say, is history.

If Jack Kerouac wrote the script for the lives of the Beat generation, Lennon and McCartney composed the soundtrack. What peculair alignment of the stars during that fifty-year-old summer allowed this creative energy to flower? How did this come to pass?

Odd coincidence, perhaps. But I can't help wondering this: What is happening right now that will be noteworthy fifty years from today?

Something to think about.

Have a great day.
Susan

It's About Time!

Yesterday, I finished the Time Travel book, THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE. I don't know why this took so long. It's only 20,000 words. Really short by fiction standards. One-third of a small category romance. But it seemed to go on forever.

For one thing, I made a major change to it halfway through which required me to go all the way back to the beginning and make adjustments. I didn't mind that so much because the changes really make the story a lot better. I just wish I would have thought of it the first time through. But I'm a Seat-of-the-Pants writer. I don't know when I start out what's going to happen. Some people like to have everything very carefully plotted before they begin. To me, that takes a lot of the fun out of it. I like to find out as we go along, just as if I were reading it. And as Stephen King says, I am the first reader of this particular book. Plotting it first takes away the joy of finding out for me.

I will admit to shedding a tear during the last scene. At least I know I connected on an emotional level with ONE reader. Even if it is me.

What I found fascinating about this one was all the ways TIME played a role in the story. First she was out of her normal Time Zone. She couldn't talk to her NY office when she first got up in England. They weren't there yet. She suffered from jet lag the first day and slept a long TIME when she got settled in.

Then, after she went through the portal to a different TIME, a lot of things happened that depended on TIME. Towards the end, they're racing to a destination to find someone in TIME to fix something, and she's watching the hands on the clock moving forward in TIME.

When I was in high school, I fancied myself a folk singer. We all did. It was the Sixties. I remember a TIME sitting on my bed, playing my guitar, singing TIME by the Pozo Seco Singers. "Time, oh, time. Where did you go? Time, oh, good, good, time, where did you go?"

My grandfather happened down the hall as I was singing, poked his head in my bedroom door and said, "Yeah. Where did time go?"

He would have been about seventy-five at the TIME. He lived into his eighties.

Well, I'd like to go on and on about this book and about TIME but that's it for today. I'm running out of blog TIME. See you tomorrow. If you've got the time.

Susan