Some Roswell Goodness...

Through the course of going through my regular day, I had the delight of speaking with someone who turned out to live in Covina, CA. So what, you say? That's only where they filmed Roswell, my favorite show of all time!

 

I know there are lots of fans out there who've made trips out there to Covina, both when the show was filming and afterward, but I, alas, in Illinois, do not have the funds for such travel. At least, I can't convince my husband that it's necessary or better than a trip to, say, Hawaii.

 

So, it was very cool to speak to this woman and live vicarously through her memories of the show. The bank was the UFO museum. The Christmas episode was filmed in Covina park. A couple of the stars, she didn't say which, walked in the Covina parade one year.

 

I told her of my HUGE Roswell poster, three sets of DVDs, and my framed Life magazine cover--two out of three are hanging on the walls of my home office. She seemed suitably impressed and a little surprised by my devotion to a show that was cancelled over five years ago. I told her, though, that there are lots of us still out here, as devoted as ever. : )

 

Just thought I'd share...It's as close to a brush with Roswell fame that I'm going to get, I'm guessing! : )

 

 

BSG--2009, really? Random thoughts and exclamations on the half-season finale.

I finally got around to watching the half-season finale of Battlestar Galactica on Monday night. I put it off because I knew it would be the last new one for a LONG time. It just about killed me, though, because that meant I had to skip all the online reviews and discussions (of which there were many) of said episode until I could watch it. I knew, though, from the sheer number of discussions that it was either really good or really bad.

 

Okay, so here's your warning...stop reading now if you don't want to know what happens. Also, this entry is really long. : )

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So...wow. Holy crap. They made it to Earth. And we still have TEN episodes (in 2009--thanks a lot, Sci Fi Channel) left. I'm so glad the writers/producers did not do the thing where it's the last two minutes of the final, final episode and we see Earth gleaming in the distance. Ugh. That would have been sucky. Instead, the last, what, ten minutes of this episode blew my mind. 

 

The end.

When the entire fleet jumped into orbit around Earth, I got chills. Though, a little voice in the back of my head whispered, "If we were there, we'd be firing on them already." I mean, seriously, thirty or forty alien ships suddenly appear in orbit? Um, yeah, talk about reaching for the panic button.

 

It was not, then, such a great shock that Earth, or what might be Earth or what might be Earth but not our Earth, was destroyed and seemingly abandoned. Have I mentioned that the scene at the end of Planet of the Apes with the Statue of Liberty is one of my favorites? This scene in BSG did not just ring a familiar bell, it shook the entire freaking bell tower. I LOVED that. Of course, as you know, I do enjoy the post-apocolyptic stuff. I also think it was interesting in that it drew us, the viewers in deeper. We are now part of the mystery. What happened to "us"? Assuming that is our Earth.

 

Some people had a beef with them going to the planet's surface when they clearly could have seen the devastation (and taken readings of the radiation) from their ships.

But here's the thing:

 

You've been on the run for three long years, on the trail of the perhaps mythical thirteenth colony and their planet Earth, and, more importantly, being manipulated into reaching said destination by some unknown Force(s)...hell, yes, I'm going down there and getting out of my Raptor to find out what HAPPENED. Some clue as to why this empty and now lifeless planet is so important. Some reason why we've been so horribly mislead and deceived by a thousand different clues and a few prophetic leaders. And...maybe a giant sign with an arrow pointing toward Mars and the Earth colony there? Just kidding...I think.

 

I would imagine they would begin to wonder if they were following old clues. Things put in place thousands of years before when people still lived there. There are some who believe Starbuck is somehow responsible for the destruction of Earth given that she saw it as it was supposed to be back when she disappeared for, oh, four months. She even claimed to have been on the planet's surface, I believe. 

 

But she wouldn't have destroyed Earth intentionally--at least not the Starbuck we know. Which means either an accident or some other party involved. Or, as some people have mentioned, time travel. 

 

I don't actually care to speculate. I know it will be explained. That is one thing that BSG does fairly well is answer the questions they bring up or at least acknowledge that they haven't answered them. Which brings me to another favorite moment in this episode...

 

Tigh "comes out" as a Cylon to Adama.

The whole time this was happening, I was on the edge of my seat, waiting for them to pull back, to fake us out, but nope. I loved it. It was as perfect for the situation (the plot) as it was for the character. Tigh is okay with being killed for being a Cylon. He probably thinks he deserves it even though he's never done anything (as far as I can remember) to ally himself with that side of things. Other than sleeping with Caprica-6, obviously.

 

The best part, though, was Adama asking the questions we've been asking ourselves. Tigh has aged. Cylons don't age. Adama remembers him from years before skinjobs even existed. How is that even possible?

 

I'd like to know these things too. Did they make a copy of the real Tigh and replace him? That's the only logical explanation I can think of. (Which surely means that is not the right answer). They've persisted in the theme of the final five Cylons being special, revered. That, plus the numbering system they have going on implies that the five were created at the same time as the other seven. Or at least, not much earlier. So, Tigh the Cylon couldn't have existed forty some years ago during the original Cylon war...right?

 

The writers/producers brought up the right questions, which I think help renews faith and the willingness to follow them just a bit further, even if they didn't answer the questions. This technique, I learned, is called hanging a lantern on it. "You address the plausibility problem by highlighting it" is how John August explains it in his blog.

In this case, though, I'm assuming, they're actually going to come through with an answer at some point rather than just shrug it off to "Who knows? You never know how those crazy Cylons work."

 

Making it worse.

There's an axiom about writing as it pertains to story--"Always make it worse." Back the character into a corner, take away all of his options, and then make it even worse. The BSG writers/producers do that, but they've refined the concept.

 

Because it's not always JUST about making it worse. It's a fine and delicate art of give and take. You can't keep taking and taking and taking or else people stop caring. They know it's never going to get better. They give up. Readers and viewers alike, in real life and fiction. But this...this is exquisite torture. Hope makes you vulnerable, makes you care what's going to happen. And they give you hope for a solution on one problem (Earth dangling out there like the proverbial oasis in the desert and the tentative Cylon/human truce) right before they yank it away on another front (the prize you've all been killing for is one big burned out wasteland, ha, ha, still want to fight over it?).

 

That balance between hope and despair, that's what I want to study and learn from.

 

Random Stuff.

Much has been made about Chief Tyrol not having a lot to do after going crazy with finding out he's a Cylon and Callie dying. And he didn't even have many lines in this episode, but you know what, the expressions on his face when they came to get him and Sam and on the planet's surface...they said it all. The man, Aaron Douglas, can communicate more with a look than others could with ten pages of dialogue. In particular, his face while they're on the planet...that sort of "of course, it's a dead planet, a dead end, after all of this" grim amusement, gallows humor. I think he actually laughs, though you don't hear it. Fan-freaking-tastic.

 

Actually, for that matter, all of them on the planet's surface deserve Emmys for those ten minutes, if nothing else. You could watch just that part of this episode and be impressed and moved, for that matter.

 

And finally...much as I hate myself for it and know that I'll regret it, I'm starting to believe in Baltar's transformation. I know he'll revert. I know it. And yet, I can't help but think he's sincere on some of this even if he doesn't completely understand it.

 

Anyway...anybody else have any thoughts on this?

 

Ask and ye shall receive--this is so cool!

Laurie Viera Rigler, author of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, a book that I absolutely LOVED, read my post last week about Regency bathroom etiquette and emailed me some answers. How cool! : )

Here's what she had to say:

"I do know that dining rooms often had chamberpots concealed in sideboards or, as in One Royal Crescent, Bath, which is a fascinating house-museum open to the public and furnished as it would have been in Georgian times, there is a chamberpot concealed behind a folding screen. One imagines that when the ladies withdrew to the drawing room after dinner, the men would take that opportunity to relieve themselves. Perhaps the drawing room had similar accomodations for the ladies. Or perhaps the ladies might also have had access to the dressing closet (dressing room) belonging to the mistress of the house. There was also a house-museum from that era that I visited in London, which had a ground-floor water closet. Although an early form of water closet existed then, the chamberpot was still very much in use."

Chamberpots in the dining room! How fascinating...and kind of icky!!! But I love that the decorum of the era is preserved in that men most likely waited until women left the room to use the "facilities." : ) Very hard to be charmed by someone at dinner if all that is going on while you're still in the room, I would imagine.

Thank you, Laurie, for sending me the info and letting me share it here! You rock!!! : )

If you haven't read Laurie's book yet, you're missing out on a rare treat. (Beck, I know you'll love it, my fellow Jane Austen addict). You can read what I wrote about it here.

Antiques Roadshow and Regency Bathroom Etiquette

The other day I flipped on the television (actually, I pressed a button, "flipping" is an anachronism, isn't that sad?) and found myself drawn to Antiques Roadshow. I love that show, especially when it's furniture, books, creepy dolls, etc. I usually place things in history using two factors: Is it before or after the Civil War and/or was Jane Austen alive when said item was in use?

This particular episode contained what one of the curator-type guys said was the top of the line in bathrooms in about 1815 or 1820. Jane died in 1817, so I paid attention. It was basically a cabinet with a marble top for the washing basin and then two spaces beneath: one for the chamberpot and one for the bidet. Ew and eeeew. He also mentioned something that I already knew, thanks to historical romance novels, but never really thought much about: they didn't have a separate room for bathrooms back in those days. They just had chamberpots, and whatever else was needed, in the bedrooms.

So, then I started thinking about it...what did you do when you were over at someone else's house and the need arose? I mean, in Jane Austen's books, they are forever going somewhere for tea or to balls that seem to last most of the night. Surely, owners don't have people tramping up to the bedrooms to use the chamberpots, right? Are there guest chamberpots? Is it like china--do you bring out the good ones for company? And I'm fascinated by this whole question, mainly because that era seems so decorous and civilized. Asking for a chamberpot as a day guest (not someone spending the night because then, presumably, you'd have your own room and all its accommodations), that seems so...uncouth.

Believe it or not, I just googled "bathroom etiquette regency period." Didn't find out anything. Does anyone know how this would have worked? Just morbidly curious, not planning on writing a historical novel of any kind.

No A/C

We're now at Day 4 of no air conditioning and for those keeping score at home, it was a blistering 90 degrees today. Fun. I just finished a very intense debate with myself about which sleeping outfit would keep me the coolest without scandalizing the neighbors who are sure to glimpse me through an open window (all of them are open now) at some point tonight. Ugh. I hate trying to sleep when it's hot.

When I lived in Hillsboro, Illinois, grades 4-8, I had the coolest room. It was in the attic, all the walls were slanted at sharp angles and there essentially was no ceiling, just a peak. It was like living in the center of a bunch of triangles. Anyway, in addition to having to walk very carefully over part of the floor--it wasn't reinforced and I was basically striding on the dining room ceiling--there was no air conditioning. You'd think that just one room without a/c in a whole house with a/c wouldn't be that bad. Trust me. It was bad.

However, after years of living air conditioned refinery, I've found I forgotten how nice it is to hear the crickets and frogs chirping outside, feel a slightly cooler breeze bringing welcome relief...and to wake up with a completely stuffy nose and sinus headache, thanks to allergies. Well, okay, the last part is not so great. : )

The a/c repair person is coming tomorrow. At 7:00 a.m. Seriously. Talk about adding insult to injury. Right about that time, it will finally be getting cool enough to start sleeping.

Miss you, Snowy. Every day.

Bitter Pill and Printers Row

I should have copies of Bitter Pill this weekend. I'm so excited! For those of you in the Chicago area, I will be at Printers Row this weekend, signing copies of Eye of the Beholder and Bitter Pill. Printers Row is the big book festival held in the city at Dearborn and Polk on Saturday, June 7 and Sunday, June 8. Come and see me! Please? : )

Thank you!

Just a quick note to say thank you to everyone who posted on Barbara's blog about The Silver Spoon!

 

You are awesome!!! : )

The Silver Spoon on Beyond Her Book blog

The Silver Spoon is among today's book blurbs on Barbara Vey's blog on Publishers Weekly. Woohoo--I'm so pleased! This is big-time exposure, in a good way! You can check it out here:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/blog/880000288/post/1580027158.html

Please comment on the blog entry, if you feel so moved! : )

More Bitter Pill news! New excerpts, too.

Awesome new review quote for Bitter Pill!

"Stacey Klemstein writes in a charming 'you are there' way, such that you feel as if you are traveling with Rennie…tasting, smelling, and touching. You are no longer just reading a book, you are transported…Excellent! I give it a 5!"
–Cynthia Lea Clark, Psy.D., FMAM Review Coordinator

Also, I posted Chapters Two and Three of Bitter Pill. Jake Bristol, the former bad boy turned very hot (and married) sheriff, makes an appearance in these new chapters. So go check them out! : )

The Host

I inhale books. I devour them at a startling (and expensive) rate. However, I bought The Host on the day it came out and within a chapter of starting, I forced myself to slow down, to savor. I finally finished it Sunday afternoon. I admit, I'm a fan of Stephenie Meyer's YA Twilight series, and so I expected to like this new science fiction novel for adults...but I never expected to like it quite this much. Wow. I've already gone back and re-read particular sections of it, meaning I've nearly read the darn thing twice already!

 

Looking at it objectively, it hits a lot of my interest points. It's set after the demise of most of the human race (in a fashion). It's earth-based science. Two compelling personalities are caught in a conflicting situation they can't escape (two "people" in one body--long story, ha!) And the most interesting love triangle (of sorts--kind of a love quadrangle, really) I've read about in years.

 

It's good. Really, really good.

 

Some of the best earth-based science fiction romance I've ever read.

 

Has anyone else read it yet? What are your thoughts?

 

 

Bitter Pill is on Amazon!

Woohoo!

 

Bitter Pill is now on Amazon! It's showing as pre-order status, so should you be interested, please go forth and pre-order.  Yea!!!!

Book Buffet

Haven't been feeling well this week, so I have gorged myself on books. Yum!

 

Fabulous ones you should check out include:

 

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict--Modern woman travels back in time to live during Jane Austen's lifetime. It's fun and funny...and that says a lot coming from me, one who hates nearly all books that try to imitate Jane Austen's style or even borrow her characters--ugh. (She is inimitable! Not because she's perfect or anything, but because I can feel the difference when I try to read those other books. It's like eating Hydrox instead of Oreos. Looks similar, even smells similar but one tastes better than the other. You know what I mean, right?)

 

I guess that's what works for me here. It's a modern woman's perspective so it doesn't seem so jarring, and she's not imitating. She's providing her own take on things. Plus, I think the author really did her research. I like that she doesn't gloss over the parts that would have been less than romantic--horse poop on the streets, body odor, blood letting as a medically acceptable practice, bathing once a week (if that).

 

Interesting to see that the reviews on Amazon are so disparate. Count me in the "love it--five stars" group.

 

New Moon: Second book in the Twilight series. I'm a big dummy because after reading (and LOVING) Twilight a few years ago, I read a review of this book that gave it low marks because Edward (the hero) was absent from most of it. Yeah, but after reading it, that's the whole point! It's agonizing and heart breaking and wonderful! I'm SO sorry that I waited years to read it.

 

Eclipse: Third book in the series. The second one is still my favorite so far just because of the strong emotions and how well they are described, but this one...wow! I'm dying for the fourth book to be released and it's not coming out until August!

 

Please don't let the fact that Twilight is YA series put you off. It is fabulous! I've rarely been moved by any book as I have by this series.

 

And here, just because, hey, this is multi-media experience, visit the official movie website and watch the trailer--be warned, though, the trailer comes on automatically so the sound will be playing. Apparently, the guy playing Edward is the same young actor who played Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter IV. His hair is weird, though. Hope that doesn't distract me during the movie. I LOVE the poster.

 

Bitter Pill--Coming soon!

I'm reading/proofing the galleys for Bitter Pill, and it's so much fun! This book, unlike many of my others, poured out of my fingertips. At least the first draft did. Fixing it--making it less obvious who the killer was, adding in essential subplots and other suspects--took a lot longer, of course! So much so that I almost despaired of ever seeing it finished and in print.

 

But here we are, several years later, and BP will be debuting in a few weeks at Chicago's Printers Row. Very exciting! The galley went out for reviews last week, and we're already starting to get some responses back.

 

Here's one of the first reviews:

 

"Rennie is creative, intelligent, and witty….draws the reader into Morrisville and keeps the reader wanting more. A stunning development of the thought provoking plot and motive." --Devlynne Livres, Independent Reviewer

 

 

Yea! : )

Tagged!

Okay, Isabo Kelly has tagged me with a meme that requires I share six quirky things about myself. This should not be hard...for me. For you as the one who has to read them...not sure!

1) I am afraid of birds. Little birds especially. Sparrows creep me out! It is the one thing I disliked about Hawaii--all the birds in the outdoor restaurants. *shudder* And before you ask, no, I've never seen The Birds. This is a phobia passed down from my mother who once was chased by headless chicken--no lie, she grew up on a farm, and chickens really do run around with their heads chopped off. Since then, birds have always freaked her out, and I "inherited" that phobia.

2) Oh, let's see...this one was just shared at RT--much to my chagrin and everyone else's delight--so probably no harm in spreading the story further. I'm a science fiction romance writer, among other things. That means there are, occasionally, sex scenes in the story. No problem. I just can't write them on Sunday. My father is a Lutheran minister. Sunday is just not appropriate for that kind of writing--at least that's what my panicky little brain keeps shouting at me! So, if I'm approaching a "heated" scene on Saturday night, I have to either hurry up and finish it (*snort*) or hold off until Monday. Yes, I know I'm a freak. (And yes, I have tried to force myself to write it on Sunday...it just doesn't work).

3) Apparently, people are very afraid to borrow books from me. I don't break the spine, fold the pages or even bend back the cover while I'm reading. I've been told that some borrowers have barely resisted the urge to wear gloves while reading a book on loan from me for fear that I'd be upset by the fingerprints on the glossy cover. I'm not that particular, really...those cover smudges clean up very easily with a soft cloth. What?

4) I can't stand it when I take off my shoes and one of them tips over on its side or even upside down. I have to fix it...immediately. This is problem, considering we have two big dogs who are constantly running through the house tipping over my previously perfectly aligned and upright shoes.

5) If there's a disease out there, I've worried that I have it. 'Nuff said.

6) I don't allow people to touch or use my writing computer (which is my desktop, not my laptop...laptop is open territory) except in case of repair. Even then, the keys, mouse and screen must be wiped down. It's not a germ thing, but an "invaded space" thing. Same goes for my pens. It takes me a long time to find pens that I love and want to use regularly. Once I find them, they become my "good pens." I actually carry extra pens in my purse that I can loan out. But if I forget to pack spares, I will lie my little head off if you ask for a pen and the only one I have is my "good one." (Isabo Kelly's promo pen is currently one of my good pens--it's awesome, nice weight to it, good grip, medium nib...love it!)

Now, do I have any friends left after that lovely recitation of weirdness? I'm tagging Lisa Shearin and Cindy Holby (oops, she's already been tagged). : )

I know her!

My friend and fantasy author Lisa Shearin has an interview up on Scifi.com! Woohoo!!!

the people in my head

Along the lines of my previous post...this entry from author Marissa Scott cracked me up. I know we all sound a bit looney tunes when we talk about the voices and whispers in our head, but it happens and I think most of us love it...even though those people in your head can be quite demanding. Linnea Sinclair talks about writing Gabriel's Ghost in 34 days because Sully, the hero, just would not leave her alone.

I'll tell you what, though, it's like those old commercials for E.F. Hutton...when they talk, we listen! And take notes, usually...

*grin*

A note to Future Stacey...

I love writing! Duh, but still...

I've been playing with an idea for a week or so now, and I did not have a first name for the central person in the story. I already had an idea of what she looked like, even what she sounded like, but no name. In the past, I think I might have tried to force it. Or, the lack of a name might have bugged me enough to interfere with me exploring the various facets of the idea.

Sidenote: I do a lot of exploring for an idea before I ever "write" a word, which basically amounts to asking a lot of questions--of myself but also of the people whose story I've been charged with telling--and following the answers down different paths, checking out possibilities, until the right one appears. Other writers do this same thing in various ways. Often there are so many ways a story could go, you have to make sure you're understanding what you're being told before you start writing. At least, I do. It's my version of responsible journalism. : )

The idea of exploring an idea is akin to letting something simmer until boils over. I have to do the right amount of exploring until I'm practically bursting to write the story before I sit down and write. Trying to force it into happening faster or earlier is not a good idea. It means I haven't firmly settled on the right path. Some other paths are still possibly beckoning to me. That translates to an indecisive wreck of a writer, so I try not to do that.

Anyway, today, I was exploring, just playing, really as usual. (Exploring is my favorite phase, I think!) And the name I'd been waiting for was suddenly just there, whispered in my head and coming out of my pen. I love it when that happens. Right in the middle of the paragraph. Two sentences before I didn't know her name. Had to keep using generic pronouns. But then, there she was. I just freaking love that!!!

The lesson in this for me--because I use this blog to remind myself of important stuff I figure out about my process along the way--is that if I'd gotten all stiff and uptight about not knowing her name, it might never have happened that way or I might have tried to force something that just wasn't ready.

So, Future Stacey, explore and simmer away--there's value in it and you'll know when you've reached the boiling point.

Big Movie Weekend

Summer is movie season for us. We love going to the movies. Sometimes as often as once or twice a week. We kicked things off in a big way this weekend--two movies in three days!

 

 

We saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall on Friday night. Very funny. A little shocking with some of the male nudity, but it was played for laughs and it wasn't gross. Just...surprising. My favorite part was that Sarah Marshall wasn't written as an evil, vindictive person--as ex-girlfriends often are in the movies and television--but rather as just a confused and scared person who doesn't know how to find what she wants and who made some (really) bad choices along the way. (Her current boyfriend, the sleazy rock star guy, is very funny and ICK at the same time). As always because this is Judd Apatow movie, it's fun to see familiar people popping up. Jonah Hill as the maitre d' who keeps trying to give away his demo to the sleazy rock star guy. Paul Rudd as the perpetually stoned surf instructor. Of course, Hawaii was gorgeous and it made me "vacation-sick" to see it. ("Vacation-sick" being a similar condition to "home-sick" only with your favorite vacation spot). Mila Kunis, in the first role I've seen her in outside of Jackie on That 70's Show, was terrific and absolutely luminous.

 

 

 

Greg and I often have very different taste in movies. Unsurprisingly, he is not a fan of my Jane Austen-based movie collection. He prefers stuff like 300 and In the Name of the King--anything historical, battle-related or fantasy (dwarves, elves, etc.). In fact, if someone created a movie in which it is discovered that a big historical battle, say the Battle of Gettsyburg, was secretly fought by warring factions of dwarves and elves with the occasional dragon thrown in, he'd probably be thrilled. : ) (Hmmm, if I wrote fantasy...nope, can't do it.) 

 

 

 

Anyway, one area on which we usually agree are comic-book movies. It's action/adventure with super powers and a love story. LOVE it. We saw all three of the Spider-man movies on opening weekend. X-Men, Superman Returns, Batman, Fantastic Four--all of them.  So, it was last minute and with little discussion that we headed out to see Iron Man last night. We loved it! Funny, well-written, timely (given the subtle but still there anti-arms dealing message). Gwyneth Paltrow looked absolutely fabulous as a redhead and Robert Downey Junior MADE the movie. I mean, it would not have been as good with someone else in that role. It was excellent!!! So, go see it. I was skeptical at first, never having heard of Iron Man as a hero, but I think that makes it even better. : )

Test, this is only a test

Welcome, people in Facebook land. I think I figured out how to make these posts show up on my Facebook page. Unfortunately, it seems to be taking the latest 25 posts over and over again instead of just the most recent. So, I'm posting this to see what happens. : )