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Fiction, Food, and Foolishness
MAGIC MIKE FAILS TO CAST A SPELL ON ME
SPOILER ALERT
I went to see Magic Mike yesterday and I’ve gotta say I was somewhat disappointed. Having been an audience member, on more than one occasion, of the first male strip club in Dallas, LaBare, I guess I was expecting the same format.
Boy, the interaction between the dancers and women has certainly changed over the years! Back in the eighties, the strippers danced on stage and on tables. In Magic Mike, they went into the audience, or invited women up on stage and got “in their face” gyrating up close and personal! Kinda a big turn-off for me.
That’s not the only thing about the movie I didn’t like. I’m a big fan of Matt Bomer, who plays one of the dancers and he, along with all the other supporting cast, only had ten lines or less of dialogue!
The movie concentrated on Channing Tatum, who plays a thirty-year-old stripper with a dream of becoming a furniture maker. He’s been saving for years to make his dream come true, then he takes “The Kid” (Alex Perryfer) under his wing because he sees some potential in him.
There was nothing about “The Kid” I liked. He threw away a football scholarship because he got into a physical fight with the coach the first day of practice. He’s drifting through life with no idea of where he will end up.
He gets mixed up with selling drugs, loses them, then Mike uses ten thousand dollars of his “dream” money to pay the dealers off. Whut??? I’ve got relatives I wouldn’t do that for, much less some random person I’ve known for a few weeks!
I will give props to Channing Tatum’s dancing ability. He was fantastic and his body ain’t bad either. Also, Matthew McConaughey shines as the club owner.
As a big fan of “True Blood” I also enjoyed seeing . . . and I do mean seeing Joe Manganiello.
If you’ve never been to a male strip club, I’d highly recommend Magic Mike. You’ll get all the benefits and not spend your kid’s lunch money on tips!
FATHER’S DAY
A few years ago, my parents were celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary and we thought it would be a good idea to make a memory book having each child, grandchild and great- grandchild, share a special memory they each had of the couple.
After all, what can you buy a someone who’s been married for that long? Not much. But, you can remind them of how important they’ve been in your life. How you’ve admired them. Trusted them. Learned from them. Tried to be like them.
I wrote each of them a separate letter of appreciation. I thanked Mother for making sure we always had a new Easter dress. It was only when I got older I realized she never got one in order for us to have one. I thanked her for the special attention she gave me when I was sick. I can still remember how just the touch of her hand on my face made me feel better. I thanked her for so many things, insignificant to some, but monumental to a child.
I thanked Daddy for teaching me how to drive and not getting angry when I wrecked the 53’ Chevy he’d just restored to mint condition. I thanked him for teaching me to ride a bike, change a tire, for taking the time to play baseball with us in the back yard and a hundred other things.
Last week, I got out the memory book and read the entries again.
On Sunday, for the first time in my life, I won’t have a Father’s Day gift, or make a Happy Father’s Day phone call. Instead, I’ll remember my daddy and what he meant to me and be thankful I told him so.
I hope you take the opportunity to tell your dad how much he means to you.
GET TO KNOW YOUR CHARACTERS
Has this ever happened to you? You’re reading over a work-in-progress and discover you’ve used the name of a character from a previous story for your leading man in the current one?
When this happened to me, I decided it was time to make a cast of characters chart. You can be as detailed or as basic as you like.
Mine generally start out with names, physical descriptions, how they’re related to other players in the story and usually at least one thing that sets them apart. Maybe it will be a certain word they use in conversation, or a particular fear they have. It could be an eating habit, or an obsession with pets, cars, gambling, etc.
After I get the general idea of the character down, I let the rest of the information for each one unfold with the story.
The place I always start is with the name. Since I write Texas-based stories, I like to use double names so popular in the South.
There are lots of websites for names, but I find most of mine by reading obituaries. That’s right, obits. I find old, double names I love by reading the survivor list. How else would I find great names like Hassie Viola, Claudie Lee or Huler Mae?
Most of the time, I visually cast my main characters with actors, so I cut their pictures out and include them in the notebook.
Some writers make elaborate story boards or collages. I just keep a small spiral.
For a really detailed chart by Rebecca Sinclair, go to www.eclectics.com/articles/character.html
Do you do something similar? What works for you? I’d love to know.
100 MOST BEAUTIFUL WORDS
Have you read the article listing the 100 most beautiful words in English? You can find one here: http://aggslanguage.wordpress.com/the-100-most-beautiful-words-in-english/
There are several sites with the list and they don’t all agree what the most beautiful words are. I suppose they were chosen for the way they roll off the tongue and sound coming out of your mouth, more than their meaning.
If we made a list according to their meaning, surely we’d include Mother, Father,and love.
After reading the list, I don’t agree with some of the choices. Actually, I can’t even pronounce some of them, so I don’t know if I think they’re beautiful or not!
I probably can’t come up with 100, but here are a few I think are beautiful. I chose them simply for the way they sound.
Angelic, Floral, Luscious, Vignette.
Do you have some words you think are beautiful? If so, I’d love to hear them.
Here’s one we all love…free. So for a chance to win a free copy of my book, LAID OUT AND CANDLE LIT, between now and June 16, go to this site.
http://funkyfinds.blogspot.com/2012/06/giveaway-laid-out-and-candle-lit.html
Wasn’t it SURREPTITIOUS of me to work that book plug in? Surreptitious made the list!!!
REGISTER TO WIN A FREE BOOK
Between now and June 16, go to this website ->
http://funkyfinds.blogspot.com/2012/06/giveaway-laid-out-and-candle-lit.html
and register to win a copy of LAID OUT AND CANDLE LIT!!
TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL BOOK SIGNING
We’ve already covered how YOU must contact stores to book your signing events, so today I want to talk about some things you can do to make them successful.
Write an announcement for the store to use over their intercom. They won’t do this on their own, but if you ask them to announce it several times during the event, they probably will. It will help get those customers out of the music/movie departments over to you.
If space provides, stage your table. Don’t just have a stack of books. Decorate it. On the cover of LAID OUT AND CANDLE LIT, there’s a picture of a coffin. My husband built a replica and I display my books in it. The coffin alone draws a crowd! Choose something from your book and focus on that, even if it’s only a poster of the cover. There are many places that do author related printing. I use Vistaprint.com and OvernightPrints.com for bookmarks, business cards, posters, etc.
About ten days before the event, take a flyer to the store announcing when your event will take place. It should have a picture of you, with a short bio and a picture of your book/books with a short description. While there, you might even ask if they want YOU to place it somewhere, that way, you can choose the best place. Sometimes they’ll let you and sometimes they won’t. Take tape with you just in case.
Lately, I’ve been offering a give-away. I call people over to my table by asking…”would you like to register to win a free book?” It’s not for the book I’m selling and signing that day, it’s for the book I have coming out next. Not only will you open conversation with the person, but you’ll get their email address on the registration form. Then you can contact them about future events, giveaways, upcoming release dates, and you can thank them for registering and let them know who won the book.
The giveaway is something you’ll want to include in the store announcement.
If you don’t want to sponsor a give-away, you can have them sign a guest book at your table, but I’ve had better luck with a give-away.
Always arrive early. Generally, the store will have your area set up, but just in case they don’t, if you get there 15-20 minutes early, you can be sure to get it all in place before the event starts.
Take a camera and take pictures with customers. Post them on Facebook or your website. It’s great advertising.
Hand out copies of five-star reviews you’ve gotten on Amazon or other places to potential customers. Remember, they may have Kindles or Nooks. If you give them those great recommendations, they may just go home and order it. CHA-CHING!
Ask your customers if they belong to a book club. If they do, offer to speak at one of their meetings. You may just get them to read your book as one of their selections. CHA-CHING!
Before you leave, look up the person who scheduled the signing for you and personally thank them. Ask if they would be open to doing another signing in the future…hey, you’re going to have more books, you’ll need more promotion!
Look for places that will announce your book signing events for free. I’m a member of our local writing club, Northeast Texas Writers’ Organization and because they are members of the Chamber of Commerce, they will list my events calendar in their newsletter! We also have an East Texas publication dedicated to events in the area; they’ll list them as well…for free! You may not make sales from those free listings, but you will be getting your name out there every month.
Lastly, and this is so important, although you thanked them personally the day of the event, send a hand written thank-you to the person who booked the event for you, even though you did most of the work!! Let them know how much you appreciate the effort they put forward and how thankful you are that they’re willing to support local/first-time/indie/small press/ authors. Believe me, a kind word means more than you know.
***Guerilla promotion: You know all those solicitations for insurance, credit cards, etc. you receive in the mail with the postage paid return envelope? I put a bookmark in it and mail it back!! Hey, someone will open it and see the title and picture of your book. You never know when it will be an avid reader!! CHA-CHING!
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Ann Everett, Best Selling Author
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{I hope you enjoy this sweet, short-story romance!}