New Year, New Contest

Hi all-- to start things out this year, Mario and I decided to have a contest The idea sprung from this:

Rowan Somerville is the author of two novels, The End of Sleep and this year's The Shape of Her, described by the Economist as "deceptively simple in plot and singularly musical in its voice, it is a study of the place where our past has become our present. A summer read to be kept – and visited in the dark days of winter..."

Last month, the novel followed authors including John Updike and Norman Mailer in winning the Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction award …with one killer sentence – "like a lepidopterist mounting a tough-skinned insect with a too blunt pin he screwed himself into her" – the novelist Rowan Somerville demolished all comers and secured this year's coveted…award.

Which brought up an interesting point. Who would you nominate for a bad sex in books award (notice I added “in books.” Don’t want any disgruntled husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, partners, etc etc coming after us.) Send in an example (we won’t name the book or author) and the winner (chosen by Mario and I) will win a prize...a prize sure to be appropriate to the topic. Anyway, here are the rules--well, RULE...find a really bad sex scene and submit it in comments. It can be raunchy or ridiculous or both. This is an adult blog. We'll run the contest for two weeks. So you have until Jan. 27. We're cross-posting this here, too, at the League, and we all know how REALLY twisted this group is so you civilians will have to dig deep to beat them!!!

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What do you think of these motion comics? Anyone bought one?

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Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby 'could be filmed in 3D'

The Great Gatsby has been adapted for the big screen in the silent, monochrome and colour eras, as well as on the small screen, and even in a version for Korean audiences. Now F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel of the gilded jazz age could be set for a turn in stereoscopic vision after director Baz Lurhmann said he was considering filming his new adaptation in 3D...

The new Great Gatsby is set to star British actor Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan, the manipulative and shallow New York socialite of Fitzgerald's famous tale of the roaring 20s. Leonardo DiCaprio is reportedly in line to play the title role, one made famous by Robert Redford in the 1974 version, with Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway, Fitzgerald's narrator.


Huh?? 3d??

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Starts tomorrow...

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Just got the table of contents for an anthology coming out in June-- Chicks Kick Butt.

Introduction by Rachel Caine 11

Shiny by Rachel Caine 13

In Vino Veritas by Karen Chance 35

Hunt by Rachel Vincent 59

Monsters by Lilith Saintcrow 85

Vampires Prefer Blondes by P. N. Elrod 112

Nine- Tenths of the Law by Jenna Black 136

Double Dead by Cheyenne McCray 167

A Rose by Any Other Name Would Still Be Red 194

by Elizabeth A. Vaughan

Superman by Jeanne C. Stein 208

Monster Mash by Carole Nelson Douglas 230

Wanted: Dead or Alive by L. A. Banks 263

Mist by Susan Krinard 281

Beyond the Pale by Nancy Holder 309

I'll post the cover as soon as I get it.

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I can't believe I missed the Cape last weekend (let me know what you thought) but I was up in Fairplay at a writer's retreat. It's also hard to believe we actually get any work done with a view like this out the sun room window, but we always manage.



Writers in residence this weekend were Linda Hull, Susan Smith, Vicki Law, Carol Berg and a good representation from my own critique group, Tamra Monahan, Warren Hammond, Terry Wright and moi. Check out the Hand Hotel if you're looking for a quiet weekend away. It's great and in the little town of Fairplay is a candy and gift shop, the Chocolate Mousse , with the best homemade fudge and candies and fruit butters I've ever tasted.

Anyway, a few pics of the gathering of the clan as we prepare to start our day of "work".