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Entertainment Earth booth at San Diego Comic-Con.

By Nick Eskey

When it comes to collectible toys and popular media merchandise, Entertainment Earth has just about everything. The company first started nearly twenty years ago out of an office and a garage in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. Its founders, who were themselves collectors that knew the struggles of finding that particular toy, wanted to help the many others who had to hunt, or spend inflated resale prices.

Today, Entertainment Earth is now based in Simi Valley. It boasts a large warehouse that carries some of best selection of merchandise available. The website is jam packed with toys, figurines, television/movie memorabilia, and more. They even have their own production line called “Bif Bang Pow!” This allows Entertainment Earth to both house products from others and to produce the kind of merchandise that they themselves would want to buy. One thing they are quite excited for is their recent DC license: We are sure to see much in the ways of DC merchandise.

Kiss band member look-a-like on the 2nd floor of Entertainment Earth booth, here to celebrate the kiss line of merchandise.

With such growth and offering so much, Entertainment Earth’s booth at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con is hard to miss, with a line of attendees waiting around to buy much of the items on display in their glass cases and on the posters overhead. It’s also one of the lucky few that stand at two stories tall.

Hologram Dark Vader.

Some of the fast moving toys this year have been the blue 20 inch Hologram Darth Vader action figure, the G.I Joe Desert Duel play set, the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler action figures, a variant black Power Rangers Megazord, and the Adventure Time lunch box; they typically sell out early each day. New and exciting additions to the company’s exclusives are always being added on. I few of my favorites are: the Kiss umbrella, Super Hero chair cape, and the Star Wars “Jabba’s Rancor Pit.”

Kiss light up umbrella.

The Kiss umbrella looks ordinary enough when closed. When it opens up, it reveals each one of the band member’s faces in full makeup and costume on the fabric. The umbrella’s pole is probably the best part, lighting up in neon.

Does your chair stand for liberty, justice, and back support? You can show its super status with a Chair Cape. They strap to the back of the chair with Velcro, and fit many sized backings. Right now they have the Batman and Superman Chair Capes available, with future additions in line like Bizarro.

A great addition to any Star Wars collection is this Jabba’s Rancor Pit. The boxed set comes with Luke Skywalker (complete with lightsaber), Jabba, Slave Leia, C-3PO, and a towering Rancor. There’s no guarantee on its availability, so buy while you can.

If you’ve yet to check out the Entertainment Earth booth, I suggest you do so. They’re collectors that cater to collectors. And for those that weren’t able to make it for Comic-Con, luckily Entertainment Earth will be holding back a certain amount of their exclusives for their website, as to give others a chance to still buy. Now if only more retailers did that.

Another ‘Awareness Day’, International Kissing Day, is coming up on July 6. It might not seem obvious but kissing, like most subjects can now be easily linked to the science of DNA. Thus, there could be no more perfect opener for my Double Helix column, given the elegance and beauty of a kiss. To start, there is the obvious biological link between kissing and DNA: propagation of the species. Kissing is not only pleasurable but seems to be a solid way to assess the quality and suitability of a mate.

The post International Kissing Day and DNA appeared first on OUPblog.

In order to spread some festive cheer, Blackstone’s Policing has compiled a watchlist of some of the best criminal Christmas films. From a child inadvertently left home alone to a cop with a vested interest, and from a vigilante superhero to a degenerate pair of blaggers, it seems that (in Hollywood at least) there’s something about this time of year that calls for a special kind of policing. So let’s take a look at some of Tinseltown’s most arresting Christmas films:

1. Die Hard, directed by John McTiernan, 1988

Considered by many to be one of the greatest action/Christmas films of all time, Die Hard remains the definitive cinematic alternative to the usual saccharine cookie-cut Christmas film offering. This is the infinitely watchable story of officer John McClane’s Christmas from hell. When a trip to win back his estranged wife  goes awry and he unwittingly finds himself amidst an international terrorist plot, he must find a way to save the day armed only with a few guns, a walkie talkie, and a bloodied vest. With firefights and exploding fairy lights abundant, this Bruce Willis tour de force is the undisputed paragon of policing in Christmas films.

2. Home Alone, directed by Chris Columbus, 1990

In a parental blunder tantamount to criminal neglect, the McCallister family accidentally leave their youngest member, Kevin (played by precocious child star Macaulay Culkin), ‘home alone’ to fend for himself over Christmas as two omnishambolic burglars target the McCallister household. As the Chicago Police Department work through the confusion of the situation, Kevin traverses his way through a far from silent night. Cue copious booby traps and slapstick as the imagination of an eight-year-old boy ingeniously holds the line in this family-fun classic.

3. Batman Returns, directed by Tim Burton, 1992

Gotham is a city perennially infested with arch-criminals whose seemingly endless financial resources demand that they be tackled head-on by a force who can match them pound-for-pound (or dollar-for-dollar, if you prefer). Enter Gotham’s very own Christmas miracle: billionaire Bruce Wayne and his vigilante alter ego Batman (Michael Keaton), who provides a singular justice-hungry scourge against the criminal underworld. As the Penguin (Danny DeVito) hatches a nefarious plot which threatens the city, Batman’s wholly goodwill must prove resilient. Though director Tim Burton went on to make The Nightmare Before Christmas the following year, Batman Returns itself is hardly a Christmas classic.

4. Lethal Weapon, directed by Richard Donner, 1987

With a blizzard of bullets and completely bereft of snow, LA-based Lethal Weapon lacks nearly all the usual trimmings of a Christmas film. Seasoned detective Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is close to retirement when he’s paired with the young (and morose) Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) to tackle a drug smuggling gang. As their stormy investigation progresses, Murtaugh and Riggs’ unlikely union flourishes into a double-act worthy of Donner and Blitzen (and, judging by the pair’s return in a subsequent three installments of the series, their entertaining policing partnership always leaves audiences wanting myrrh…).

5. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, directed by Jeremiah Chechik, 1989

In this third installment of the Griswold family’s catastrophic holidays, Clark (Chevy Chase) navigates his way through the perils of yet another disastrous calamity, but at least this time he has his Christmas bonus to look forward to. Things take a bizarre turn for the criminal when the bonus isn’t forthcoming, resulting in a myriad of mishaps of Christmas paraphernalia and SWAT teams. As the tagline for the film attests, ‘Yule crack up!’

6. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, directed by Shane Black, 2005

Petty thief Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) finds himself embroiled in a series of increasingly byzantine cases of mistaken identity as both a method actor and criminal investigator. Reality cuts through when Harry is shepherded into a murder investigation involving the sister of his childhood crush, Harmony Lane (Michelle Monaghan). Perhaps one of the less christmassy films on this list, there are definitely still a few seasonal signs parceled  in to this murder/mystery thriller.

7. Miracle on 34th Street, directed by George Seaton, 1947

Arguably the ultimate Christmas film, Miracle on 34th Street is the classic tale of the legal battle around the sanity and freedom of a man who claims to be the real Santa Claus. This original film won three Academy Awards including Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Edmund Gwenn’s portrayal of Kris Kringle (‘the real Santa Claus’). Despite being remade in 1994 and adapted into various other forms, the 1947 version remains the quintessential Christmas film which no comprehensive watchlist could be without.

8. Bad Santa, directed by Terry Zwigoff, 2003

Dastardly duo Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) and Marcus (Tony Cox) make their criminal living by posing as Santa and his Little Helper for department stores, and then opportunistically stealing as much as they can. As the security team for their latest blag hunts them down, Willie meets a boy determined that he is the real Santa and the race is on for the degenerate pair to reform their lifestyles before they are stuffed.

What would would you add to this list? Tell us your favourite policing Christmas film in the comments section below or let us know directly on Twitter. Merry Christmas everyone!

Headline image credit: [365 Toy Project: 019/365] Batman: Scarlet Part 1. CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0 via Flickr.

The post Christmas crime films appeared first on OUPblog.

        

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Continued from “Bimonthly etymology gleanings for August and September 2014. Part 1″…

Dangerous derivations and chance coincidences

A correspondent cited a few tentative etymologies of English words.

• Sail: in Mennonite Low German sähl means “harness.”
• Bride: Dutch brudespaar allegedly means “broody pair.” Doesn’t bride mean “broody hen”?
• Cow: the German word kauen means “to chew.” Couldn’t that be the origin of the word cow?

I am sorry to disappoint our correspondent, but such haphazard comparisons should be abandoned. To discover the origin of old words, one has to compare their most ancient attested forms. For example, kauen always had a diphthong, while cow has its late diphthong from a long monophthong that once sounded like Modern Engl. oo (compare German Kuh). And so it goes. On the more intuitive level, one should realize that, if a word has baffled professional scholars for centuries, the most tempting solutions have probably been offered and rejected. By the way, the Dutch compound for “bride and bridegroom” is bruidspaar, not brudespaar; the word has nothing to do with brooding.

Another correspondent wrote that the Russian word for “kiss” also means “to aim.” Whoever suggested this connection seems to have confused the Russian words tsel “whole” (discussed in the post on kissing) and tsel’ “aim.” The sign l’ stands for palatalized (or “soft”) l; where the transliteration has an apostrophe Russian has a special letter (the so-called miagkii znak). Tsel is an old word, while tsel’ is a borrowing of German Ziel “aim” (more precisely, Middle High German), via Polish.

Still another correspondent wonders whether the noun chapbook and the verb tucker (out) “to tire, to weary” can be of Hindi origin. I think chapbook has such a transparent English derivation that it does not merit further discussion. Tucker is probably a frequentative of tuck, like very many verbs of this structure. There is no denying the fact that our correspondent cited Hindi words that have both the form and the meaning closely corresponding to chapbook and tucker. But, as I have written many times while answering similar questions, the fact of borrowing can be ascertained only if we succeed in showing how a foreign word reached English (compare the history of thug, which is indeed from Hindi, or other examples cited in the great book Hobson-Jobson). Was tucker used mainly by Hindi speakers? Do we have any proof that this verb spread from their community? Only a detailed investigation along such lines can sound convincing. Otherwise, we will stay with kauen ~ cow and their likes.

Wise restraint. An old colleague of mine wrote in connection with my post on roil.

“Honoré de Balzac published in 1842 a novel called La Rabouilleuse. The title name is explained as being a word local to the Berry region of France where a young girl is employed to stir up the mud in a stream, thus clouding the water and permitting a fisherman to more readily catch crayfish (crawfish?). One can easily see the way the word is formed: the verb bouillir “boil” plus a reduplicating prefix ra- and a feminine agent suffix. Now the verb rabouillir or some variant of it might fit in with roil both with some phonemes and the meaning.”

The author of the letter did not suggest any solution, and I think he was right to do so. The coincidence looks like being due to chance.

Old Friends

Every now and then I run into publications that would have come in most useful in my earlier posts and comments. But it is never too late to pick up even the oldest chestnuts. For instance, I have challenged the supporters of they ~ them in sentences like when a student comes, I never make them wait to give examples that are really old. Almost nothing has turned up. But here are two more phenomena that have aroused some interest among our readers.

Split infinitive. It would seem that passionate, as opposed to rational, splitting set in several decades ago, and the construction I called to be or to not be conquered the ugly day. Roswitha Fischer’s article on the split infinitive appeared in 2007; however, I read it only this summer. Among many other examples, she quoted Wycliffe: “It is good for to not ete fleisch and for to not drynke wyn” (ca. 1382). I do not follow Wycliffe’s recommendation but in defense of his grammar should say that with for to he had nowhere else to put the negation. I am sure everybody will remember: “Simple Simon went a-fishing, / For to catch a whale.” Nowadays, for to, an analog of German um zu, is dead, except in some dialects.

One… his. We have been taught to say one…one’s. But people keep correlating one with his (now probably their; see above). In The Nation for 1921 I found a letter to the editor from Steven T. Byington (Ballard Vale, Massachusetts) with the funny title Four Centuries of Onehese. The writer quoted five sentences with one—his. I’ll reproduce only the relevant part of them:

• “…one was surer in keeping his tunge, than in muche speking” (excellent advice going back to 1477)
• “…the higher one doth mount, the less doth euery thing appeare which is below him” (1607)
• “If one proposes any other end unto himself” (1650)
• “…one’s sure to break his neck” (1650), “One should do what his own nature prescribes” (1886)

Among other things, the letter discusses the utterance: “One oughtn’t never take nothing that ain’t theirn.” I suspect that in the great books on English grammar by Jespersen, Poutsma, and Curme many more examples of the one… his type will be found. A certain Markman, a friend of James Steerforth’s, “always spoke of himself indefinitely as a ‘man’, and seldom or never in the first person singular” (David Copperfield, Chapter 24 “My First Dissipation”). This way of speaking may help those who have trouble with one.

Check your slang

Also in The Nation, this time for 1922, I found a more than enthusiastic review by Clement Wood of Carl Sandburg’s fourth book of poetry Slabs of the Sunburnt West. In the opening paragraph, Wood expressed his delight about Sandburg’s use of slang. I ran the list by my undergraduate students. Here it is: humdinger, flooey, *phizzogs, fixers, frame-up, *four-flushers, rakeoff, getaway, junk, *fliv, fake, come clean, gabby mouth, *hoosegow, *teameo, *work plug, lovey, slew him in, bull, jazz, scab, booze, stiffs, hanky-pank, hokum, bum, and buddy.

The words that no one recognized are given above with an asterisk. I knew more. However, some of them I knew by chance. For instance, long ago, a bookstore near our main campus closed its doors. It began to sell its stock at a small discount, but every two days the prices went down. The only books that no one wanted to take even when they were free were those by American poets. I grabbed the entire batch and read everything. In this rather dubious treasure trove, I discovered Sandburg, read his poem called Phizzogs, and looked up the word. It has never occurred in my reading since that day. In my work, I have dealt with synonyms for “prison,” so that hoosegow was quite familiar to me. I also knew fliv, but the word is forgotten. This is what I expected, for once I tried the same experiment with jitney and drew blank, while people of my age recognized it immediately. If I had run into a poker player, such a person would have had no trouble identifying four-flushers. Fixers, bull, work plug, slew him in, and stiffs look transparent, but without the context it is impossible to decide their exact meaning. We of course guessed that hanky-pank is a back formation on hanky-panky.

My students say that, when they watch movies of the fifties, they do not understand the slang used there, while their parents are in the dark when it comes to the slang of their children. On the other hand, the words given in bold in my list are today so familiar that no one would have referred to them as particularly striking. One should take into consideration that, to know one’s language, one has to read the literature written in it. It is curious to follow the modern annotations of Oliver Twist and Vanity Fair. Both Dickens and Thackeray used slang quite generously, and the commentators assume that no one understands it today. Perhaps they are right.

I still have some questions unanswered and will take care of them at the end of October.

Image credits: (1) Photograph of Carl Sandburg, 1947. Library of Congress. (2) Sandburg book cover via Booklikes.

The post Bimonthly etymology gleanings for August and September 2014. Part 2 appeared first on OUPblog.

        

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Like every other custom in life, kissing has been studied from the historical, cultural, anthropological, and linguistic point of view. Most people care more for the thing than for the word, but mine is an etymological blog, so don’t expect a disquisition on the erotic aspects of kissing, even though a few lines below will lead us in that direction. Did the ancient Indo-Europeans, the semi-mythic people who lived no one knows exactly when and where kiss? And if they did, what was their method of performing this “gesture”? Did they rub one another’s nose, the way many people do? Did they kiss their children before putting them to their nomadic beds? Did they kiss goodbye to lost objects, blow a kiss to a friend, or kiss the hand of the woman whose affections they hoped to gain? Alas, we will never know. Even a common Indo-European word for “head” does not exist, and if there is no head, how does one kiss in a truly Proto-Indo-European way? Our records, beginning with Ancient Egypt, the Old Testament, and Vedic texts are quite old but not old enough.

In 1897 Kristoffer Nyrop (1858-1931), a distinguished student of Romance linguistics and semantic change, wrote a book called Kysset og dets historie (The Kiss and Its History; being a nineteenth-century Dane, he stuck to the reactionary habit of writing his works in Danish, but the book was translated into English almost immediately and is still available.) The 190-page study reads like a novel. A week after its publication, all the copies were sold out, and Nyrop was asked to prepare a second edition and do so in a wild hurry, to be ready for Christmas sales. As could be expected, he complied. Regrettably, he said nothing about the origin of the word. Yet the literature on the etymology of kiss is huge.

As usual, I’ll begin with Germanic. The ancestors of the Modern Germans, Dutch, Frisians, Scandinavians, and English had almost the same word for “kiss,” approximately koss (coss). Part of the New Testament in Gothic has come down to us. Gothic is a Germanic language, recorded in the fourth century, and the word for the verb kiss in it is kukjan. As early as 1861, Dutch dialectal kukken surfaced in a scholarly work, and somewhat later an almost identical East Frisian form was set in linguistic circulation. It became clear that at one time Germanic speakers had two forms—one with -ss-, the other with -kk-. Their relation has never been explained to everybody’s satisfaction.

Solomon in The Song of Songs mentions passionate kisses on the mouth, and Judas must also have kissed Jesus on the mouth. At least, such was the general perception in the Middle Ages (for example, this is how Giotto and Fra Angelico, but more explicitly Giotto, represented the scene), so the Hebrews and the Romans kissed as we do, and Wulfila, the translator of the Gothic Bible, probably had a similar image before his eyes while working with the Greek text. So the speakers of the Germanic languages called “kiss” a kuss- (the vowels might differ slightly) or a kukk-.

Whenever the ritual of kissing came into being, some kisses were used to show respect and in other situations served a purpose comparable to shaking hands (think of a handshake sealing a bargain). Kissing the foot of a king or the Pope belongs here too. Dutch zoenen has the root of a verb meaning “reconcile” (a cognate of German versöhnen). Consequently, people kissed to mark the end of hostilities. Later the Dutch verb broadened its meaning and began to denote any kiss. Something similar happened in Russian, in which the verb for “kiss” is akin to the adjective for “whole”: tselovat’ (stress on the last syllable), from tsel. A kiss must have been a gesture signifying “be healthy, gesundheit.” Another Dutch verb for “kiss” (this time, dialectal), with a close analog in dialectal German, is poenen ~ puunen and seems to have meant “push, plunge, thrust; come into contact.” Here the emphasis was obviously on the movement in the direction of another person. Then there is Engl. smack, believed to be sound-imitative: apparently, when one kisses someone, smack is heard. Onomatopoeia is always hard to prove, but compare Russian chmok, which means exactly the same as smack. Latin savium, of obscure origin, designated an erotic kiss, while osculum goes back to the word for “mouth” (os). Neither is sound-imitative.

Where then does Old Germanic kuss- ~ kukk- belong? Many researchers have suggested that it is sound-imitative, like smack. Perhaps we really hear or think we hear smack, chmok, kuss, and kukk when we kiss. However, even an onomatopoeic word can have a protoform. Reconstructing any protoform is pure algebra. For example, the Gothic for come is qiman (pronounced as kwiman). Its indisputable Latin cognate is venire. To make the two belong together, we should posit an ancestor beginning with gw-. In Latin, g was lost, and in Germanic it yielded k, according to the law of the consonant shift (b, d, g to p, t, k). Did the ancestors of Latin speakers ever say gwenire? Most likely, they did.

In the same way, kiss was tentatively connected with Latin gustare “to taste,” on the assumption that at one time the sought-for form began with gw-. Although this suggestion can be found in one of the best Germanic etymological dictionaries, it now has few, if any, supporters. More instructive is the fact that the Hittite for “kiss” was kuwaszi, and it resembles Sanskrit ṡvaṡiti “to blow; snort” (k- and s- alternate according to a certain rule, while u and w are variants of the same phonetic entity). Add to them Greek kuneo “kiss,” in whose conjugation -s- appears with great regularity: the future was kuso and the aorist ekusa, earlier ekussa. On the basis of this evidence, several authoritative modern dictionaries posit a Proto-Indo-European form of kiss. Can we imagine that three or so thousand years ago there was a common verb for kiss that has come down to our time? Possibly, if “kiss” designated something very common and important, that is, if, for example, it existed as a religious term, something like “worship an idol by touching the image with one’s lips.”

Other hypotheses also exist. Kiss was compared with the verb for “speak,” from which English has the antiquated preterit quoth; Engl. choose and chew; Swedish kuk “penis,” Low (= Northern) German kukkuk “whore; vulva,” Irish bel “lip,” and especially often with Latin basium “kiss” (noun) ~ basiare “kiss” (verb), recognizable today from its cognates: French baiser, Italian baciare, and Spanish besar. All those conjectures should probably be dismissed as unprofitable. The origin of basiare is unknown, and nothing good ever comes from explaining one obscure word by referring it to another equally obscure one.

We are left with two choices. Perhaps there indeed once existed a proto-verb for kiss sounding approximately like it, but who kissed whom or what and in what way remains undiscovered. Or, while kissing, different people heard a sound that resembles either kuss or kukk. Neither solution inspires too much confidence, but, in any case, the long consonant (-ss and -kk) points to the affective nature of the verb. Perhaps an ancient expressive verb belonging to the religious sphere had near universal currency, with Hittite, Sanskrit, and Germanic still having its reflexes. If so, the main question will be about the application of that verb. The sex-related look-alikes (“penis,” “vulva,” and the rest) should, almost certainly, be ascribed to coincidence.

To prevent the Indo-European imagination from running wild, one should remember that alongside kiss, Engl. buss exists. Although it sounds like Middle Engl. bass (the same meaning), bass could not become buss, and it is anybody’s guess whether bass is of French or Latin origin. Swedish dialectal puss corresponds to German Bavarian buss, which is remembered because Luther used it. French, Spanish, Portuguese, Lithuanian, Persian, Turkic, and Hindu have almost identical forms (Spanish is sometimes said to have borrowed its word from Arabic), while Scottish Gaelic and Welsh bus means “lip; mouth.” Even Engl. ba “to kiss” has been recorded. This array of b-words seems to tip the scale toward the onomatopoeic solution, the more so because, to pronounce b, we have to open the lips. For millennia people have kussed (no pun intended), kossed, kissed, kukked, bassed, and bussed, to show affection and respect, to conclude peace, and just for the fun of it, without paying too much attention to origins. This is not giving a kiss of death to etymological research: it is rather a warning that some things are hard to investigate.

Nowadays the question where does a certain sentence occur? has lost its edge. Google will immediately provide the answer. So find out who wrote: “‘A gentleman insulted me today’, she said, ‘he hugged me around the waist and kissed me’.” Then read, laugh, and weep with the heroine.

Image credits: (1) “The prince awakened Sleeping Beauty.” From Kinder und Hausmarchen, von Jakob L. und Wilhelm K. Grimm; illus. von Hermann Vogel. Dritte Auflage), 1893. NYPL Digital Gallery. Digital ID: 1698628. New York Public Library (2) The Kiss. Gustav Klimt. 1907-1908. Austrian Gallery Belvedere. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

I love Kelly Hunter!  What the Bride Didn’t Know will be in stores November 1st (Kindle version)

What the Bride Didn’t Know (The West Family)

What are you waiting on?

Title:  The One that Got Away Author: Kelly Hunter

May Contain Spoilers

From Amazon:

Review:

I have read three titles from the Harlequin Kiss line now, and each has been vastly different in tone and texture.  My previous forays into the Kiss line were a bit more light hearted and more in line with what I thought this line would be like.  The One That Got Away caught me by surprise.  This is a darker read, with flawed but likable characters.  It delves into the fears of a man whose childhood was marred by abuse, and examines his deepest fear – that he will be as violent, controlling, and selfish as his father.  This fear has shaped his adult life, twisting his relationships and fueling his desperation to keep everyone at arm’s length.  Mix in a hopeless obsession that has festered for over ten years, and you have a story that makes you uneasy and steals your breath away in equal measure.

Evie has worked long and hard to make a successful business of MEP, the architectural firm she runs with her friend Max.  When a huge opportunity looms for them, they both fret about raising enough working capital.  Then Max drops a bombshell.  He asks Evie to marry him so he can access his multimillion dollar trust fund.  Shocked, she agrees, and they travel to Max’s hometown to meet his family, and give Evie another shock.  Max’s older brother, Logan, is the man she spent a blissful week with 10 years ago, a week that ended in disaster.  Both Evie and Logan have been haunted by their brief time together, but for different reasons.  Evie’s heart was broken when she didn’t hear from him again, while Logan ran as fast and as far away from Evie and his obsession for her as he could.  Evie represented everything that terrified him, and he didn’t want to face that monster in the closet of his mind. 

Now, older and ten years wiser, Evie wants to put that week from her past into perspective.  Logan refuses to discuss it.  With the support of Max and his mother, Evie slowly begins to understand the demons that stalk Logan.  She confronts him, time and again, trying to make him understand that they are both different people than they were ten years ago.  I admit that their relationship made me uncomfortable at several points,.  Logan’s fear of being like his father has made him try to repress his inner most desires, and when they batter at him, they terrify him.   Evie and Logan’s relationship is dark and intense, and at times, unhealthy.  I began to wonder if I would be convinced that they could ever have a HEA.  Fortunately, I was, and I became a bigger fan of Kelly Hunter’s because of it.

My one quibble would be the lack of depth regarding Evie’s background, and how her dysfunctional childhood affected her.  We are given a brief sketch of her parents and their inability to commit, but there is no clear picture given.

Grade: A

Review copy provided by publisher

Please welcome Zander Rush, hot-shot producer for EROS radio station.  He’s here to chat about a recent promotion that is currently the talk of the town.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Describe yourself in five words or less.

[Zander Rush] Complicated, professional, focussed.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Can you share a typical day in the life of Zander Rush?

[Zander Rush] Typically, I’d be up early for a run. One hour minimum. Then home for shower and coffee and into the Jag. Stop for drive-through coffee on the way to work. Much better than my own (I have the top-of-the-range machine but I’ve never read the manual). Then it’s pretty much meetings and paper shuffling from 8am until 6pm. No coffee there at all, the machine’s rubbish. Either lunch with clients or one of the local restaurants will deliver to my desk. End of day my assistant nudges me out the door and I grab something on the way home. Then another couple of hours of work, a bit of time on my training schedule and bed.

Rinse, repeat.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three words come to mind when you think of Georgia?

[Zander Rush] Shambolic, fearless, real

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What is the first thing that you noticed about her?

[Zander Rush] Her voice, husky and anxious piping out through the whole studio. But I hadn’t seen her then. Once I met her I became fixated by her manners, even though she was falling apart. She was so unflinchingly polite. Classic Brit.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Have you ever had a promotion backfire like Georgia’s Valentine’s proposal?

[Zander Rush] One man’s backfire is another man’s boon. The network were ecstatic at the exposure it got and I was able to pull it back on track pretty quickly. But no, that’s probably the biggest ‘oh crap’ moment of my life…

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What was the primary reason you offered to foot the bill for the Year of Georgia?

[Zander Rush] It was her money the moment she signed the proposal contract, I just found a way of her earning it that wasn’t truly horrible for her. That two minutes in the lift with her, the look on her face… I knew the money would be the last thing she’d be thinking of but it was also my biggest tool to set things to rights.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] If you could change one thing you’ve done in your life, what would it be?

[Zander Rush] Answering an ad for EROS looking for a production coordinator. That was the moment my life went off track. And then it just kept veering…

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What’s one thing you won’t leave home without?

[Zander Rush] My door key? Heh.

*cough*

Okay, serious then… uh… my smartphone. There isn’t a brain on this planet big enough to keep all my obligations in it.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What do you like to do when you aren’t working?

[Zander Rush] I train. I love to run. The longer and the more peaceful the better. Just me, my heartbeat and the thump of my feet on the track.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Can you share your dreams for the future in five words or less.

[Zander Rush] Meaning. Freedom. Family. Garden. Georgia.  They’re all kind of sub-sets of Georgia, really…

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Thank you!

[Zander Rush] You’re welcome. Invoice is in the mail. Now I have a radio station to run….

To learn more about Georgia, Zander, and the Valentine’s Day proposal gone wrong, read How To Get Over Your Ex by Nikki Logan. You can order a copy from your favorite bookseller or by clicking the links below.

About the book:

Title:  Hitched! Author:  Jessica Hart

May Contain Spoilers

From Amazon:

Review:

Hitched! is the last of the Kiss launch titles that I read.  Once again, it showed how much  variety there is across the line.  This one threw me though, because it is written in the first person POV, and I struggled with that.  It screamed more Chick Lit to me than Harlequin Romance, and  I found being constantly in Frith’s head, with no glimpses into what made George tick, disconcerting.  I enjoy getting more input from the hero, and as I was only privy to Frith’s thoughts here, that wasn’t possible.  I never felt connected to George or his motivations, because of that.  Frith’s voice is fun and upbeat, but I have some kind of mental block when I am confronted with category romances written in this point of view.  I always have, and it seems, I always will.

Frith has been lassoed in to helping her younger sister plan her extravagant wedding.  She doesn’t want anything to do with it , though.  Always feeling like an outsider in her own family, she doesn’t get along with her sister’s friends, and her wealthy father isn’t in her good graces.  After her parents divorced, Frith watched her mother spiral into unhappiness.  Her mother was never able to get over her father, and due to his indifference to her, Frith’s relationship with him withered.  Determined to make something of herself without his help, she put herself through school and landed a job at a construction company.  Her dream is work at a huge construction project overseas, and she won’t let anything get in the way of her dreams.  Not sexy George or her sister’s much publicized wedding.  Frith has a plan, darn it, and she’s sticking to it!

I did love Frith’s personality.  She is a planner.  A mega planner, actually.  She works off of five year plans, where everything is spelled out for her as she marches toward her career goals.  George, the estate manager for the construction site she’s currently working at,  is her exact opposite.  He has no plans, and he just takes things one day at a time.  He finds Frith’s planning ridiculous.  How can you live your life if you’re so worried about sticking to a plan?  Frith has developed her five year plan, with no room for a serious relationship, to keep herself from falling into the same trap as her mother.  She will never allow herself to feel that passionately about a man, and so her focus is on herself and her career.  All of her previous relationships were tepid and easily forgotten.  All except one, that is, and that one, awful experience is something that she never wants to repeat. 

At first, Frith is able to resist George and his flirty ways.  She doesn’t trust him, and she feels that he’s a threat to her plan.  As the days tick by, however, and they are both roped in helping with the wedding planning, a companionable friendship develops between them.  This is what I enjoyed most about Hitched!  The romance is slow to build, but once Frith starts to give in to her attraction for George, it quickly steams up.  I am not a huge fan of the love at first sight trope, and am usually not convinced by the HEA, so I liked how Frith and George’s relationship changed and grew.  They both have demons from their pasts to face, and together, I know that they will conquer all of their insecurities.  Frith’s belief in George was also refreshing.  After hearing unfavorable gossip about him, she quickly dismissed it as untrue.  She didn’t let  the drama overcome her feelings for him, and instead trusted him enough to explain the situation himself.  There are so many contemporary romances were the heroine takes gossip at face value, driving the couple unnecessarily apart, so Frith’s trust was nice change.  The only thing keeping me from enjoying Hitched! more is the POV.

Grade: C+

Review copy provided by publisher

Continuing with my Harlequin Kiss celebration, today I invited one of my favorite romance authors, Kelly Hunter, to the virtual offices for a visit.  Please give her a warm welcome!  Don’t forget that on Friday, I will be giving away one complete set of the KISS launch titles, so make sure to stop back to enter for your chance to win!

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Describe yourself in 140 characters or less.

[Kelly Hunter] I’m a forty-something mother of boys, with an eclectic work history and a fondness for the unexpected. I travel a lot and live in Australia.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What makes Harlequin’s Kiss line unique from their other series romances?

[Kelly Hunter] The party-line is that KISS features strongly unique author voices, global settings and world views, smart characters and compelling stories. Fun is definitely allowed. The level of sensuality may vary. I adore writing for this line.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What do you enjoy best about writing for Harlequin?

[Kelly Hunter] The fabulous editors.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Can you tell us a little about The One That Got Away?

[Kelly Hunter] In essence, it’s a second chance romance between two characters who meet again unexpectedly after many years apart.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] How did you come up with the concept and the characters for the story?

[Kelly Hunter] I can tell you how the idea for the story started… A bunch of romance writer pals and I were sitting around one day (there may have been drinks with little umbrellas involved) discussing (okay, pulling apart) the famed and oft misunderstood Presents Alpha Hero. I was writing Presents Extra at the time and wondering why these super-controlled and oh-so-dominant men didn’t really seem to dominate in the bedroom. Figured I’d attempt to write one that liked to dominate there too. The result was Logan Black. The challenge was to see if I could make me fall in love with him.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three words best describe Evie?

[Kelly Hunter] Strong. Self aware.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] If Logan had a theme song, what would it be?

[Kelly Hunter] Natalie Merchant’s ‘My Skin’.

Some of the lyrics:

"Oh, I need the darkness

The sweetness

The sadness

The weakness

Oh, I need this."

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Name one thing Evie won’t leave the house without.

[Kelly Hunter] Her handbag. She’s a practical girl.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three things will you never find in Logan’s pockets?

[Kelly Hunter] Bus tickets, comb, junk.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What is Evie’s greatest regret?

[Kelly Hunter] I kinda don’t see Evie living a life of regret. Even after that first week with Logan, Evie didn’t regret her time with him. She learned from it.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What are your greatest creative influences?

[Kelly Hunter] Friends. Music. Stories written by other authors – especially ones that stretch genre boundaries and challenge my perspectives.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three things do you need in order to write?

[Kelly Hunter] Time, a computer and preferably a table and chair – although the last two are optional.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What is the last book that you read that knocked your socks off?

[Kelly Hunter] Crush, by Richard Siken.  Sometimes I go in search of new (to me) male author voices; more specifically male authors who write about love and relationships. I picked up Crush at the end of last year and it won my heart – probably because it was so different to what I normally read. It’s poetry. I never read poetry

My favourite line: ‘I said kiss me here and here and here and you did,’ from ‘I Had A Dream About You’.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] If you had to pick one book that turned you on to reading, which would it be?

[Kelly Hunter] Something by Enid Blyton involving adventures and naughty children and minimal parental involvement (that or a Faraway Tree).

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What do you like to do when you aren’t writing?

[Kelly Hunter] Spend time with friends and family.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] How can readers connect with you?

[Kelly Hunter] I’m on twitter, facebook, and occasionally I blog. Or you can email me privately via my website.

twitter: https://twitter.com/KellyHunterova

fb: http://www.facebook.com/kelly.hunter.73307

blog: www.kellyhunter.co

Website: www.kellyhunter.net

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Thank you!

You can purchase The One That Got Away from your favorite bookseller or by clicking the links below. Be sure to check back at the end of the week for your chance to win a set of the first four KISS titles!

About the book

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

After enjoying Nikki Logan’s How to Get Over Your Ex, I am curious to read Daniel’s side of things.  Fiona Harper follows heartbreaker Daniel in The Guy To Be Seen With.  In stores February 19

What are you waiting on?

Title: The Downfall of a Good Girl Author: Kimberly Lang

May Contain Spoilers

From Amazon:

Review:

I struggled with The Downfall of a Good Girl.  I never felt a connection with Vivi, the story’s protagonist.  She is everything that I am not.  She comes from one of New Orleans’ oldest and wealthiest families, she is a former beauty queen, and now she spends her days running an art gallery and volunteering for various charitable causes.  I am fortunate to run a brush through my hair and pull it back into a ponytail on a daily basis, so a former pageant competitor was difficult from me to relate to.  The plot revolves around the annual Saints and Sinners fund-raising competition, where Vivi is pitted against her childhood nemesis, Connor Mansfield.  Connor and Vivi have been at loggerheads forever, and Vivi is dismayed to discover that Connor, now a successful rock star, will be her competition.  She had never considered that he would be chosen to be the Sinner, and she’s not happy about it at all.  She is extremely competitive, she hates to lose, and for a majority of the book, she is a poor loser just at the thought of losing.  If I met her, I don’t think we would ever be buds.

Connor is reeling from a scandal, and though he proves that the gossip about him is false, he’s still reluctant to put himself in that kind of position again.  When he meets Vivi again, he thinks he’s safe.  He doesn’t even like this woman, and she hates him.  Ever since that flash of temper when they were teens and she publically slapped him, they have been like oil and water.  What Connor doesn’t know is that Vivi once carried a torch for him, but after realizing that he was only using her to get to know her friend better, she can’t find it in herself to forgive him.  Worse, her family and Connor’s are very close, and they have been thrown together since childhood.  Forget that gentle, Southern belle non-sense – she doesn’t want to be nice to him, so she usually isn’t.

While I did enjoy the sparks between them, Vivi’s personality grated on me.  She determines from the beginning that she is going to win the contest by raising the most money, but when Connor is unveiled as the opposition, she gives up before things even begin.  Instead, she charges herself to be a better person than Connor, though even that’s a struggle for her.  Why is he back in town, stealing her thunder?  This was supposed to be her moment to shine, not Connor’s!  This thought process annoyed me, because it is the charity’s moment to shine, and the fact that Vivi was allowed to participate should have been honor enough.  She’s been denied few material things in life, but in terms of personal accomplishments, she is lacking.  She was runner up in the Miss American pageant, and she is steamed to be second best again.

Once Vivi loosens up a little and finally lets go, jumping into an affair with Connor, the pacing of the book picks up significantly.  Their competition becomes fun, and they both focus on doing their best to raise as much money for the charity as they can.  Vivi is having the time of her life, until Connor starts thinking about making New Orleans his home base.  Suddenly, their temporary affair isn’t such a good idea anymore.  She doesn’t want to risk her heart to him, and as long as their arrangement was temporary, there was no threat to her emotions.  Her attitude about trying to stick with Connor permanently pissed me off.  Instead of gambling on that ever elusive HEA, she decides that it’s not worth the effort.  If I had been Connor, I would have been furious.  It’s okay to have a fling, but not okay to try to make things work out permanently?  If Connor had walked away at that point, I wouldn’t have blamed him.

I loved the setting for The Downfall of a Good Girl, and the book would have made my TBR pile just because of that. It’s unfortunate that I didn’t click with the heroine, and that some pacing issues at the beginning of the story prevented my from feeling engaged in Connor and Vivi’s romance.

Grade:  C+

Review copy provided by publisher

Today Jessica Hart is visiting the virtual offices to talk about her latest release, Hitched!  This is one of the Harlequin KISS launch titles, and I’m thrilled to have Jessica here.  On Friday, I will be giving away one complete set of the KISS launch titles, so make sure to stop back to enter for your chance to win!

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Describe yourself in 140 characters or less.

[Jessica Hart] Loves history, lists & wide horizons. Loathes litter, lies & misused apostrophes. Hopeless at being concise.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What makes Harlequin’s Kiss line unique from their other series romance?

[Jessica Hart]  A sharp contemporary edge and a sense of fun.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What do you enjoy best about writing for Harlequin?

[Jessica Hart] Connecting with readers around the world.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Can you tell us a little about Hitched?

[Jessica Hart] Engineer Frith is a woman with a plan, and it doesn’t include weddings of any kind. But when she’s roped into organizing a hen party for her spoilt half-sister, she ends up relying more than she wants on her annoying neighbour George … and before long a wedding doesn’t seem quite such a terrible idea after all.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] How did you come up with the concept and the characters for the story?

[Jessica Hart] A glossy magazine leapt into my hands one day, the way they do, and it seemed rude not to glance through it. There was a story in it about a billionaire’s younger daughter who was having some extraordinarily ostentatious wedding. She was described as the apple of her father’s eye and almost as an aside the article mentioned that her older sister was going to be a bridesmaid. I couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to be that sister who was clearly not the apple of her father’s eye, and so Frith started to come to life. I wanted her to be someone who didn’t belong in her family, so I made her a half-sister and gave her a fraught relationship with her father and a determination to prove that she could manage by herself. And then I thought about the kind of man who would challenge everything Frith thought she wanted, and along came George …

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three words best describe Frith?

[Jessica Hart] Loyal. Prickly. Honest.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Name one thing George won’t leave the house without.

[Jessica Hart] Treats for his horses.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three things will you never find in George’s pockets?

[Jessica Hart] A list. An electronic organizer. A mirror.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What is Frith’s greatest regret?

[Jessica Hart] Letting grief and loneliness make her vulnerable to humiliation.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What are your greatest creative influences?

[Jessica Hart] Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Loretta Chase, Nora Roberts, Jenny Crusie, Georgette Heyer, Mary Stewart.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three things do you need in order to write?

[Jessica Hart] My iMac. No distractions. A looming deadline.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What is the last book that you read that knocked your socks off?

[Jessica Hart] The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

[Manga Maniac Cafe] If you had to pick one book that turned you on to reading, which would it be?

[Jessica Hart] Honestly? About Teddy Robinson by Joan G. Robinson. This was my favourite book when I was four. I used to scream with laughter, and insist that not a single page was missed. A perfect lesson in how a well-written story can make you believe utterly in the characters – and it still makes me laugh! After that, it would probably be Anne of Green Gables.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What do you like to do when you aren’t writing?

[Jessica Hart] It sounds boring, but I’m transcribing some 16th-century court records that are fascinating. That’s my labour of love. Otherwise, I like to cook and eat and plan holidays, and I spend far too much time sloping out for coffee or a drink even when I’m supposed to be writing.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] How can readers connect with you?

[Jessica Hart] Come find me on Facebook, or through my website – I’d love to hear from you!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jessica-Hart/197786216977996

www.jessicahart.co.uk

[email protected]

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Have a wonderful day!

[Jessica Hart] You too, and many thanks for the invitation to the Manga Maniac Café!

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Thank you!

You can purchase Hitched! from your favorite bookseller or by clicking the links below. Be sure to check back at the end of the week for your chance to win a set of the first four KISS titles!

About the book

About the author:

Jessica’s earlier career was a haphazard one, including stints as foreign newsdesk secretary in London, cook on an Australian outback cattle station, TEFL teacher in Jakarta and interpreter on expedition in Cameroon. She first stumbled into writing as a way of funding a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies, and since then she has written 59 books for Harlequin Mills & Boon’s Romance/RIVA series. A multiple finalist and past winner of both a RITA (Christmas Eve Marriage, Best Traditional Romance 2005) and the UK’s coveted Romance Prize (now the RoNA Rose Award), Jessica was awarded the National Readers’ Choice Award (Traditional category) for her 50th book, Last-Minute Proposal, in 2009 and again in 2010 for Cinderella’s Wedding Wish.

Jessica lives in York, a historic city in the north of England, and also writes ‘time slip’ novels as Pamela Hartshorne.

To find out more about Jessica, visit her website, www.jessicahart.co.uk, or find her on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jessica-Hart/197786216977996

Title:  How To Get Over Your Ex Author:  Nikki Logan

May Contain Spoilers

From Amazon:

Review:

How To Get Over Your Ex is the first Kiss title that I picked up.  I have read and enjoyed several of Nikki Logan’s books, so I was eager to dive into this one.  The premise of being rejected on live radio intrigued me, and I wondered how Georgia would handle such a publically humiliating incident.  When she puts her head down and runs, I couldn’t blame her.  My gosh! How mortifying to learn how badly you’ve misread your relationship!  While Georgia believed that she and her boyfriend Daniel were firmly on the path to marriage and contentment ever after, Daniel was just hanging out with her because it was convenient and because he didn’t love her or expect her to push for a commitment.  Ouch!

I loved Zander’s reaction to the disaster he inadvertently allowed to happen.  The radio producer is used to successful, high-rated programs, so when Georgia’s Valentine’s Day proposal is shot down like a lead balloon, he has to somehow salvage the promotion.  He’s got advertisers to think of.   With London taking sides after the rejection,  he must quickly make Georgia more sympathetic.  How could she not realize that her relationship was so shallow?   Having been burned by love himself, Zander does his best to retain Georgia’s pride and keep his ratings.  By proposing that she have a Year of Georgia, to discover who she really is, he entwines his life with hers for the next twelve months. 

I loved the concept of having a year to discover who you really are.  Georgia balks at the idea at first, not wanting anything else to do with her humiliating on-air segment.  She thinks it’s a waste to spend the sum allocated by Zander on classes and exploring who she really is.  She knows who she is!  As she starts taking classes and meeting new people, Georgia discovers how little she does know about herself.  She thought that she was happy, but she was just settling for the easiest, most convenient option.  She has put her dreams on the back burner in favor of work, and now that she is confronted with all of these different situations, she realizes how close she came to selling herself short.  Life is full of risk, but she was always taken the safest route.

I enjoyed How to Get Over Your Ex so much because I liked Georgia and Zander so much.  The story is more about discovering who you are and then accepting that even if you chase your dreams, things aren’t always going to work out, but if you avoid taking chances, you will never have what truly makes you happy.  Zander is dealing with an embarrassing relationship fiasco from his past which has kept him at arm’s length with his relationships, so it was fun to see how Georgia, using her fresh perspective on life, continue to try to win him over, regardless of how often he rejects her advances.  I thought this was a different read for a Harlequin, focusing more on Georgia gaining some needed confidence before she attempts to tackle her tangled emotions for Zander.  I am looking forward to reading Daniel’s side of things in Fiona Harper’s The Guy To Be Seen With next month.

Grade:  B+

Review copy provided by publisher

Kimberly Lang is here to join in on my Harlequin KISS celebration.  I am uber-excited about this new series by Harlequin, and I’m working on inviting all of the launch authors to drop by the virtual offices for a chat.  On Friday, I will be giving away one complete set of the KISS launch titles, so make sure to stop back to enter for your chance to win!

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Describe yourself in 140 characters or less.

[Kimberly Lang] Author of sexy contemporary romance, trouble-maker and Southern belle.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What makes Harlequin’s Kiss line unique from their other series romances?

[Kimberly Lang] I think KISS hits that sweet spot – a fairy tale feeling that we want from a romance, but with enough realism to feel like it could happen to you or a friend. The characters and situations are easy to identify with, so readers can just get lost in the story. KISS has a fun, flirty vibe and it definitely sizzles! There’s a variety of voices in KISS (and some of the most talented authors out there!), so there’s something for everyone who loves a good story.

If books were fireworks, KISS would be the sparklers – burning hot and fast with lots of sparks, but close-up and personal, because you hold them in your hand while they burn.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What do you enjoy best about writing for Harlequin?

[Kimberly Lang] I love the short format. There’s a real challenge to telling a complete story in 50,000 words or less, but I like that challenge. It keeps me focused because I don’t have the word count available to wander off with secondary characters into subplots. The immediacy and pace required means I never get bored by the story or tired of the characters. 

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Can you tell us a little about The Downfall of a Good Girl?

[Kimberly Lang] I had so much fun writing this book.  Downfall is set in New Orleans (the site of many a good girl’s downfall!), and pits the saintly Vivi against her childhood nemesis, Connor, during the Saints and Sinners charity fundraiser. I’ve got an alpha hero rock star in a set of five-foot tall angel wings and a former beauty queen determined not to lose this crown. There’s music, good deeds, a parade and a really hot scene with a piano that I’m quite fond of.  You can find the official blurb and an excerpt on my website (http://www.booksbykimberly.com/books/the-downfall-of-a-good-girl/)

And speaking of music… all the songs featured in Downfall were written by the beautiful and talented Cristina Lynn, a local singer/songwriter who was kind enough to put her words in Connor’s mouth. Cristina even wrote an original song inspired by Connor and Vivi’s story.  Check out my site or hers (www.cristinalynn.com) for a listen!

[Manga Maniac Cafe] How did you come up with the concept and the characters for the story?

[Kimberly Lang] Honestly, I couldn’t tell you.  My mind is a very messy place, so I really don’t know what causes an idea to bubble to the surface. Usually, I’ll have a character or a situation as the seed and I build the book around that. This time, I knew I wanted to set a book in New Orleans, and I knew one of the characters would be in the music industry (because music is such a big part of New Orleans). From there, my creative process gets a little fuzzy… I know I had several false starts and rejected Chapter Ones before everything clicked into place for this story.  But where the idea finally came from? No clue.  I’m just glad it did.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three words best describe Vivi?

[Kimberly Lang] Saintly. Competitive. Elegant.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Name one thing Connor won’t leave the house without.

[Kimberly Lang] A smartphone – he needs to stay connected and have music to listen to. (Hm, I guess I have that in common with him!)

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three things will you never find in Connor’s pockets?

[Kimberly Lang] Connor would only carry the bare minimum required, so anything other than a phone and a credit card would be superfluous.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What is Vivi’s greatest regret?

[Kimberly Lang] Slapping Connor at their Coronation Ball ten years ago. (Only in that she wishes she’d have hit him harder and not done it in public.)

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What are your greatest creative influences?

[Kimberly Lang] I have a couple of English degrees, so I’d like to say something about great literature, but I’m really inspired by pop culture, especially TV shows like Friends and Buffy, the Vampire Slayer that have strong women and really great dialogue.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three things do you need in order to write?

[Kimberly Lang] Diet Coke, hot tea, and cherry jelly beans.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What is the last book that you read that knocked your socks off?

[Kimberly Lang] This is a bit of a tease (and slightly self-promo-ish), but… I’m really excited to say that I’m part of the When Honey Got Married … anthology with the very talented Kelly Hunter, Ally Blake, and Anna Cleary that will be released in March. Although we planned the books together, I was totally blown away with how good their stories turned out. I mean, I like my contribution to the anthology, but Kelly, Ally and Anna’s are just amazingly good and I can’t wait for folks to get to read them!

[Manga Maniac Cafe] If you had to pick one book that turned you on to reading, which would it be?

[Kimberly Lang] I’ve been an avid reader my entire life – my mom says I started reading when I was four, so I don’t ever remember not loving books and wanting to read. The first romance novel I read, though, was Bertrice Small’s Skye O’Malley, and it led to my obsession with romance novels. I still love a big, fat, sexy historical romance – and those are the books I’m most likely to turn to when I need a break.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What do you like to do when you aren’t writing?

[Kimberly Lang] I read, watch crime dramas like L&O: SVU and Criminal Minds, hang out with the family and play with the dog.  I’m also a fitness instructor – I teach a combination of yoga, pilates and tai chi that helps combat the “writer butt” that develops from too many jelly beans.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] How can readers connect with you?

[Kimberly Lang] My website, www.BooksByKimberly.com, Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/kimberly.lang.520) and Twitter @booksbykimberly.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Thank you!

You can purchase The Downfall of a Good Girl from your favorite bookseller or by clicking the links below.  Be sure to check back at the end of the week for your chance to win a set of the first four KISS titles!

About the book

About the author

Kimberly Lang isn’t one of those people who always knew she wanted to be a writer. She actually wanted to be a ballerina, but puberty failed to deliver the required swan-like elegance. That dream scuttled, she went on to get her Master’s Degree in English – and she has the bartending skills to prove it. At her husband’s insistence, she quit teaching in 2007 to write full-time, and in May 2008, sold her first book to Harlequin’s London office. That book, The Secret Mistress Arrangement, debuted at number nine on the Borders Series Bestseller list and won the 2009 National Readers’ Choice Award for Best First Book.

Since then, Kimberly’s books have appeared on the USA Today, Amazon, Borders, and Bookscan bestseller lists, and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. (And, yes, that’s really cool.)

She’s married to her college sweetheart, whom she affectionately (but appropriately) calls her Darling Geek, and is Mom to the most brilliant and beautiful child on the planet (aptly nicknamed Amazing Child). She started taking yoga-based fitness because she eats way too many jelly beans while writing, and became an instructor once she figured out that spending time with her butt over her head helped spark her creativity. More than one sticky plot point has been solved in the Down Dog position.  She has no hobbies because she doesn’t have time, but if she did, they’d include knitting, skiing and ballroom dancing, because they sound like they might be fun.

Finally, something appropriate to wipe yourself with…

This unusual toilet paper is be part of a whole collection of collaborative merchandise between Sanrio and Gene Simmons, tying Hello Kitty and KISS. Other products include Hello Kitty/KISS dolls, T-shirts, tissues, and posters. These items are primarily being sold at KISS concerts worldwide.

(Thanks Ed Austin via Trend Hunter)

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Hello Kitty, Kiss, Sanrio

First comes love features the same couple that is on the jacket for my book Torched:

Image by shkatula via Flickr

Where were you when you had the best kiss ever?

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Fact or Fiction? Where were you the last time you saw a shooting star and what did you wish for?

I kick my feet in the air and they land solid on my board. My right hand skims the water as I drop into the tube. Sea spray mists my face, salty and sweet. I think about all the surfers who have ever ridden this water. All the boats that ever sailed it too. I think about the ocean and the timelessness of it. That the sound of the surf, sea pounding sand, must be the oldest sound on Earth.

I love knowing the sea, something ancient, so intimately. Being right about a wave. Taking it. Touching the water as I carve, leaving a bit of me behind.

I glide into the soup. Hop off, grab my board and walk along the water’s edge. My feet sink into the wet sand. Whistles greet me on my stroll down the beach. Not knowing why, I smile and hunt for Sean in the waves. Feet slapping wet sand behind me makes my heart race and I turn around.

“Had to be the sweetest wave ever! You rode it like a pro,” Sean says, giving me a sideways hug. He takes the towel off his head.

“Let’s celebrate, Ash. Where to?” Sean unzips his wetsuit to just below his belly button and has a Tommy-Burger look in his eye. He frees his arms of  neoprene, shakes his blonde hair. It freezes in the-I’ve-just-been-surfing-and-its-my-life look. He towels off his guns first, works his way to his six-pack, wraps the towel around his waist and slips out of his wet suit.

He’s hot, but best friends aren’t supposed to notice that. I absolutely love watching Sean dry off almost as much as much as watching him pull on his butt-sculpting jeans.

I look to the sea. The sunset casts an orange-purple glow to the sand and the beach sparkles in spots. “This’ll do.” The waves blown out now, everyone’s on shore.

The towel drapes over Sean’s head now. He peeks out from under it and says, “But we don’t have anything to celebrate with.”

“We have each other.” That came out wrong. Or, did it. He’s so smoking hot backlit by the setting sun.

Sean takes the towel off his head. He holds my hand. “Let’s go find a spot on the beach.”

A queasy kind of sickly feeling comes over me on our walk down the beach.

We sit in the sand for a long time without saying a word. Awkward. How is it people stay friends after they’ve done it? Never happened to me before Sean. Sand grinds between Sean’s hand and my thigh. “Come on Ash, for old times sake,” he whispers.

Sean leans toward me, pressing his body against mine. I lay down in the sand. It grinds into my hair when he kisses me, easy, slowly. I want to do it. Remember this time. Like a do-over. But I don’t want to be that girl any more. He plunges his tongue into my mouth. We kiss like old lovers. Perfect and sweet.

I wonder if I’ll ever know who I am after being who everyone else wants me to be. Do I even know how to be me?
A shooting star fades before falling into the Pacific. My alien Dear Abby says yes. I do. She believes in me. The stars save me again, from another mistake.

0 Comments on Answer: Shooting Star [Fact or Ficton?] as of 5/10/2010 9:21:00 AM

I want to give away a free copy of the book.

Why? Well, because I'm a heck of a guy, that's why.

However, giving away something requires a contest, and contests are more often than not a pain in the poop cheeks of those putting them together.

If I'm going to do a contest I want to keep it simple - because I'm lazy.

To enter all you have to do is finish the following sentence:

"I really, really want a free copy of "Forts" because..."

That's it.

Just tell me why you deserve to get the book for free and email it to: [email protected]

In the end, I'm the judge. I'll pick my favorite and when the book is released you'll not only get it for free, but I'll sign it and maybe even draw a little something on the inside cover. I'll do whatever you want. If you feel like you really need me to put on some lipstick, pucker up and give it a kiss I'll do that too.

Keep in mind however that asking me to do such a thing would be horrifying, and confusing request - no doubt instantly transforming you into a grade-A weirdo in my eyes.

Who knows, maybe you're cool with that? Maybe that's exactly what you're going for? I'm not here to judge really, just give away free stuff.

Make your response funny, give me a sob story, threaten my life and the lives of those I love - I don't care - do what you have to do in order to convince me that you deserve a freebie over the other dudes sending emails my way.

You could even bribe me, though that would seem to defeat the purpose.

THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS MARCH 15, 2010. I'll announce the winner a few days later.

See, nice and easy. It'll take you all of fifteen seconds. Get to it.

Steve