Top French Chef
What did you all who watched think of Top Chef? I had no motivation to really give it a blow by blow blog this week. The only fun was Jamie’s stinky attitude towards the perfection that was Le Bernardin and Chef Eric Ripert. Excuse me, Missy. Also Carla’s funny expressions during the quickfire cracked me up. I really like her. I decided to write this way to keep all spoilers in the comments.Have at it!Best,KwanaMarriage or Motherhood
A while back over at Dooce she had a post that asked the question: what is more difficult marriage or motherhood? My quick answer was motherhood hands down and I’m still sticking with that answer. Of course, this could be just in my world. Being a mother of twins it was always a bit overwhelming even from the start and now that they are teenagers, oh baby please. Also the marriage thing always felt like it had an out. Which is funny for me to say since I’ve been married for 19 years through many ups and downs, but it’s different somehow from the forever of motherhood. Strange.Sometimes I feel like the blog world is so full of happy shiny babies and well starched husbands that it would almost make a woman think that it’s all a breeze. But we do know better don’t we? It’s not all crafty days and Tiffany blue boxes. More often than not it is: where did the day go? Should we order in again? And did he seriously buy me that?But back to the point, I guess it really comes down to what stage you are in life as to how you would answer this question. Is there a real answer? What do you all think out there? Opinions please. I love them.Sidebar: Obviously the octuplets’ mom is clearly from the camp of marriage being harder because she is quick to have a baby, the marriage thing? Not so much for her.
Sidebar 2: Dear Twins, When you are in therapy moaning about me later please get it straight. It’s not because I didn’t think you couldn’t do anything. It’s because I believed you could do everything.Sidebar 3: Just to keep this about writing and such, what are some of your favorite books or movies that deal with motherhood? One of mine is Terms of Endearment. It gets me every time.What A Lady!
What’s Jack up to? Jack is full of energy today. All I hear is tap, tap, tap as he wanders around the house his nails tapping in the wood floors. I have no clue what he’s up to and honestly I don’t want to know. I’m sure it’s trouble.
Last night I had the pleasure of attending the debut of Lady Jane’s Salon. Lady Jane is a new monthly romance reading series held at Madam X in Soho. It is the brain child of Authors Maya Rodale, Hope Tarr, Leanna Renee Heiber and Ron Hogan of Beatrice.com.Admission was 5.00 or a gently used romance novel. The reading was for a great cause: Share the Love which is an organization that collects gently used romance novels and passes them on to non-profit organizations that provides assistance to woman in transitional periods of their lives. For more information on share the love your can check out their website at http://www.share-the-love.org/.This month’s readers were Hope Tarr and Andrea Pickens. Both did a fabulous job and launched the series off in a most romantic way.
And the best part was I got to connect with lots of my writing buddies and blog friends. Here are a few pics. Sorry about any blurriness. All taken with the Blackberry and shaky hands.
The founders: Hope, Ron, Maya, Leanna
Andrea Pickens
Leanna, Lauren Willig, Elizabeth of Scandalous Women
Sarah Tormey and Elizabeth
Katie of Babbling about books, Chapter mate Stacy and Barbara Vey of Publishers WeeklyNext month my RWA/NYC chapter mate, and New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig will be reading along with Jenna Peterson. If you’re in town come and check it out the first Monday of the month. Don’t forget to bring a book!
Best,
KwanaSuper Monday
So this was the best part of the Superbowl for me, apart from the snack-o-rama at my house. That was pretty cool too. But this Macgruber commercial just cracked me up. BTW I still don’t fully understand football. Sorry DH.
This ad was my DS’s favorite. It’s a total boy ad but so funny. The best is that it was created for only 2 thousand dollars by a couple of guys who won a contest as opposed to the 2 million dollar ads. I love that.
Another Monday and I’ve got writing and workouts on my mind. My writing has been going too slow for my taste and I seem to get distracted by the slightest thing. It’s like, “oh look, shiny!” Not really, it’s just life has been super busy. But what else is new? I can’t believe it’s already February.
I’ve also got to get back on course with the old D-I-E-T. I’ve been just awful. No excuses there. Notice how it’s so easy to fall out of a good habit and way hard to give up bad one. No fair, huh?
What’s doing for your week?
Best,
KwanaSnow Dog
I think Jack and I are on the same page and both hoping that the snow predicted for Tuesday does not come. Enough already right, Jack?This picture says it all.
Best,KwanaLisa Kleypas Made Me Clean My Closet
What’s Jack up to? Jack has been an early riser lately, wanting to eat early, go for walks early, play early. So that means we all have to get up early. You may be cute and all but this is not fun, Jack. I am not an early bird.
I know this may seem like a funny title for a post, but it’s really true. You all know from here what a huge Lisa fan I am. I was crazy for her historicals but now I’m ga–ga for her contemporary books too. Well, I was blog hopping and read on M. G. Braden’s blog that she got a copy of Sugar Daddy at RWA Nationals this year. Now this got me thinking about all my books from Nationals. I’ve been slowly going through my books and thought that I remembered getting Sugar Daddy in my haul. Remember this pic?
I decided to go on the big dig. That book had to be there. But before I could get to it I noticed that my Nationals boxed had been covered with school supplies, Christmas wrap and all sorts of other mess in the utility closet. Yikes! For a moment I thought about shutting the closet door. But how could I? Sugar Daddy could be in there just waiting for me. I took I deep breath rolled up my sleeves and got busy.After much sweating and a complete reorganization of shoes, magazines, school supplies and wrapping papers, sweet success! Sugar Daddy! Yes, it’s now in my hot little hands and the rest of my books from Nationals are on my shelves with all my many other books to read. Oh, the treasures I have. It’s going to be a good weekend. I hope yours is great.
Best,
KwanaWhat Makes A Story
On my current reading list is a Christmas gift that was given to me by one of my critique partners. As a matter of fact she gave a copy to each of us in our small group with the comment of something like, “this book is making me miserable so I thought you all had to have it too!” Sweet. This is why I love my critique partners and wouldn’t trade them for anything. She did back it up with, “don’t get me wrong, it’s making me miserable in a really good way.”The book in question is The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller by John Truby.
Here is a blurb: “If you’re ready to graduate from the boy-meets-girl league of screenwriting, meet John Truby . . . [his lessons inspire] epiphanies that make you see the contours of your psyche as sharply as your script.”—LA Weekly. John Truby is one of the most respected and sought-after story consultants in the film industry, and his students have gone on to pen some of Hollywood’s most successful films, including Sleepless in Seattle, Scream, and Shrek. The Anatomy of Story is his long-awaited first book, and it shares all his secrets for writing a compelling script. Based on the lessons in his award-winning class, Great Screenwriting, The Anatomy of Story draws on a broad range of philosophy and mythology, offering fresh techniques and insightful anecdotes alongside Truby’s own unique approach to building an effective, multifaceted narrative.
Now, I’m just beginning the book and am only up to step three. I’m horrible at finishing writing books. It’s a strange block with me or maybe they are just hard to get through. The only one I did do start to finish was Stephen King’s On Writing. He even made a writing book interesting. Go figure.
But so far this book has me with its talk about The Dramatic Code which says: character change is fueled by desire. Truby steps away from the classic 3 act structure of most stories. He promises you’ll enjoy the creation process as you follow his 22 step program then in the very next chapter on premise he challenges you to: Write something that may change your life! Gulp. Sure I’ll get right on that. And then he gives this little tidbit: 9 out of 10 writers fail at premise. Yeah, it’s a real upper. Tons of enjoyment there.
But I’m up for the challenge. I just adore my friends. Misery, company and all that.
So tell me, what makes a story good for you? Can you pin it down? Is it a feeling? The Characters? The flow? The tension? The suspense? Please share or give examples of your favorite stories, either books or movies. Don’t be shy now.
Best,
KwanaP.S. – Scroll down for Top Chef talk. Warning spoilers ahead.Top Bowl- Spoilers Ahead
Top Chef comes on and the midnight lovers, Leah and Hosea are feeling remorseful in the light of day.
The leftover chefs head to the kitchen and the Quaker Oats quickfire challenge. I sure miss the old days without so much product placement. I am so tired of seeing the name of those darn stoves. There is no immunity for this challenge and on the bottom of the batch were Leah, Fabio and Jeff. Tops were Carla, Jamie and Stefan. The winner is Stefan.
They go in the NSG room and see numbers on chef’s jackets. From this they just know it’s a football challenge. How? I don’t know.
Elimination challenge is Top Chef Bowl against past season’s losers. The only ones that are moderately interesting are Andrew and Fedora Spike. Hi Andrew!
Stefan gets to decide who he’s going against and he chooses Andrea. Who? I know that’s what I said.
The rest are divided up and challenged to cook head to head. Any chef who loses their head to head will be up for elimination. I like kinda this challenge.
Jeff vs. Josie-Josie wins. She rocked it.
Carla vs. Andrew-crazy vs crazy Carla’s crazy wins.
Stefan vs. Andrea- Stefan is in love. She plays him and wins. Hosea could not be happier.
Hosea vs. Miguel-Hosea
Leah vs. Nikki- Leah wins.
Jamie vs. Camille- Once again who? The winner is Jamie
Fabio vs. Fedora Spike- both are talking trash. It’s good. Spike wins. But barely. I’m confused with Fabio talking. Why is he making me think he won?All in all season 5 takes it.
At the judges table the winners are called in to pick the big winner and it’s Carla! And she wins 2 tickets to the Superbowl.In the bottom are Stefan, Fabio and Jeff. I’m loving listening to Fabio explain his overcooked meat. It could go for an hour. But going home is… Jeff. Why am I not surprised?
Are you?Best,
Kwana
Caught
What’s Jack up to? He’s admiring all the snow that I’m coming to loathe. Enough already with this winter thing. Is it over yet? Come on, another snow storm? Another snow day? Waa Whine…
So, I’m happy to say Katie was not telling tales when she made Lisa Kleypas’ Blue Eyed Devil one of her top picks for 2008. I finished the book the night before last and I can’t tell you all how disappointed I was that it was actually over.There I was at 11:30 at night looking around with at least a hundred other unread books in my house, but sad that I didn’t have another Lisa Kleypas just like this one to begin reading right at that moment. Don’t you love it when that happens?
It was refreshing to read a straight contemporary for a change. No mystery, magic, shape shifters or vampires. No deep tales of angst or melancholy. Just a good romance with an intriguing heroine and sexy rake (yep, a contemporary rake) of a hero with all sorts of trouble getting in the way of their love.The tension was kept so high. There was one suspenseful moment where I was so into the book and it just so happens something fell in another room of the house and I actually jumped. Eek! Like a little girl. That never happens to me. (note to self: keep the tension high)Well done! Thanks for the recommendation, Katie. I’ve turned into a huge Lisa Kleypas fan. The woman can write right.Best,KwanaKeep it Cool Boy
Well, it was bound to happen. The DS (Dear Son) has gone all fashion on me. Now this is normally the DD’s aka “The Diva’s” job, but for the past two weeks it was the DS that has been bugging me to take him to the mall and for a pea coat of all things. This is the same kid that I can’t get to put on a light jacket in 15 degree weather. Color me confused, but not for long, adolescence is kicking in and I guess the whole ‘clothes make the man thing’ or at least gets you noticed is starting to become apparent with his set. Eek. Why me? I’m so not mature enough for this job.Well, being this late in the season it was no easy task finding a pea coat. Sell outs everywhere.Finally, late Saturday night success! In the store he slips the coat on, goes to the full length mirror and smiles suddenly giving me a glimpse of the young man that I’ll have to let go of very soon.
“So what the big deal with this coat?”, I ask. “Why do you have to have it now?”
He looks at me like I surely don’t have a brain in my head and says, “Mom I can’t go around looking like a bum with Barack Obama being president now can I?”
I just smile. “No sweetie, surely, you can’t. Now do you have a belt on, care to pull those jeans up a bit more?”Yep, Change has come…Best,KwanaP.S. I never posted a pic, but I did finally finish knitting the DS’s after Christmas hat right before his birthday. Here it is:
