Thursday, May 22, 2008

The boys of Tinseltown rock my world!

Let me preface this post by saying that I do not live in a very exciting locale. Our claim to fame is that we are the soybean capital of the world. I know, right? So when Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale, and Stephen Soderbergh show up in town to film a movie, it kind of shakes things up a bit.

The film is called The Informant. Here is an excerpt of the book by Kurt Eichenwald that the movie is based on.

"The FBI was ready to take down America's most politically powerful corporation. But there was one thing they didn't count on."
So reads the cover of this high-powered true crime story, an accurate teaser to a bizarre financial scandal with more plot twists than a John Grisham novel. In 1992 the FBI stumbled upon Mark Whitacre, a top executive at the Archer Daniels Midland corporation who was willing to act as a government witness to a vast international price-fixing conspiracy. ADM, which advertises itself as "The Supermarket to the World," processes grains and other farm staples into oils, flours, and fibers for products that fill America's shelves, from Jell-O pudding to StarKist tuna. The company's chairman and chief executive, Dwayne Andreas, was so influential that he introduced Ronald Reagan to Mikhail Gorbachev, and it was his maneuvering that ensured that high fructose corn syrup would replace sugar in most foods (ever wondered why Coke and Pepsi don't taste quite like they used to?). There were two mottoes at ADM: "The competitors are our friends, and the customers are our enemies" and "We know when we're lying." And lie they did. With the help of Whitacre, the FBI made hundreds of tapes and videos of ADM executives making price-fixing deals with their corrivals from Japan, Korea, and Canada, all while drinking coffee and laughing about their crimes. The tapes should have cinched the case, but there was one problem: Their star witness was manipulative, deceitful, and unstable. Nothing was as it seemed, and the investigation into one of the most astounding white-collar crime cases in history had only just begun
.

The universe would conspire against me and put so many obstacles in my way the ten days they were in town that I would not be able to stalk Matt properly. I mean, see him face to face. But I have the whole two degrees of Matt Damon going on with several close friends. Everyone has gone on and on about how friendly Matt and the entire crew were. Here he is at the local mall with my friend Erin.
It was fascinating to all of us how snowdrifts could be made on an eighty degree day. How a Firestone tire store could be transformed into an exotic car lot in just a few hours. How every tiny detail was thought of for a scene to make it perfect. And most of all, how on earth could Matt Damon ever be made to look sort of geeky?
I can't even imagine how many pictures Matt stopped to take with fans, or how many hundreds of autographs he stopped to take the time to sign. He was truly gracious and Decatur, Illinois will never forget it.
And in very exciting news that has nothing to do with Matt Damon, unless he wants to buy the movie rights and star as the dad, I recently sold a new book. I'm very excited about this one.
Here is the deal posting.

Steph Hale's THE ALPHA BET, in which a super-smart sixteen-year-old starts college early as a way to escape her hyperactive parents and gets in over her head when she decides to pledge a sorority, to Andrew Karre at Flux, by Jenny Bent at Trident Media Group (NA).
I'm very excited to be a part of the Flux family.
To celebrate I'm giving away three copies of my new release, TWISTED SISTERS, to random commenters. So comment away. You have until midnight tonight (Central time)And happy weekend!
xo,
Stephanie

27 comments:

Keri Mikulski said...

Congratulations on your new deal! Yay! Great Matt Damon pics. Thanks for sharing. I'm in this to win it!

Anonymous said...

That stinks that you didn't get to meet him, you could have gotten a pic of him with your book. But Congratz on the new book deal! I can't wait to read it!
Rachel R.
mybkclub@aol.com
mybkclub.com

Book Sp(l)ot said...

Congratulations on the book deal! I can't wait to read it now :)

and thanks for sharing the pictures

Tasha said...

Congratulations on your new deal!! It sounds absolutely great. While I haven't had the pleasure of winning your books I have heard so many great things about them and I really hope I win so I can say I've read at least one:)

Emily Marshall said...

Congrats again on the new sale, Steph. Can't wait to read it. And I'd LOVE to win Twisted Sisters. Can't wait to read that one, too.

Steph said...

Stephanie! Congratulations on that new deal!!! I have both of your books on my TBR pile and can't wait to get started on them :)

I don't know if you're keeping the midnight-yesterday deadline or not, but I added this link to YAWeekly since not a lot of people seem to have entered. If you ARE keeping it, then no problem, I'll just say "my bad"!

Steph

Anonymous said...

Congrats! That is so great!

brittany

Dona Sarkar-Mishra said...

Congrats Steph (again) on the FLUX deal and the Matt Damon in your town thing :)I think he is SUCH a cutie pie....

:)

Unknown said...

Congrats on the book deal! Great pictures you posted.

Amee said...

I'd love to win a copy! I already have the first book so it would be perfect to win this! :P

TinaFerraro said...

I've already got a copy of the book, Steph, but allow me to congratulate you again on your new deal! And may I be totally obnoxious and remind you that a year ago, I stood about three feet from Matt Damon while he signed an autograph for my daughter's friend??? None of that nerdy make-up, either. The boy was HOT.

MarjoleinBookBlog said...

Hi! also congrats from me on the book deal!
enter me for the contest please : )

flip said...

The books sounds really great. I would love to win it. Matt Damon is a cutie patootie, but I really want to read the book on which the movie is based.

Have a great weekend

Anonymous said...

I never would have guessed that was Matt Damon! Congrats on the deal!

Carmella (aka Car on Blueboard)
carmella@carmellavanvleet.com

paperxxflowers said...

Congratulations! That's so awesome :]

Meredith said...

Congrats on your new book deal! Can't wait to read it. I still have to read Twisted Sisters, so this contest is right up my alley!

Me said...

The 80s can make anyone look dorky!

Woooohoooo!!!! on the book deal, Steph! I know this one is going to be a huge hit. It's such a clever concept. =)

(And I exempt myself from the contest, even though I *do* need a copy since I gave both of my away at my workshop on YA earlier this month.)

Park Avenue Princess said...

Thanks SO much for sharing your great news! I found out about the book give-a-way today on myspace! I'm really shocked I didn't already know! I'm an Indpendent Reviewer and would LOVE a chance to READ and REVIEW this book.

I'm in the hospital right now, fighting cancer for the fourth time. (Over fourteen years) This is the main reason that I read and review. It keeps my mind off of the bad and on with the good! I love to spread the word for the authors that I love to help get their books out there. I also review for three different online sites. It's because of authors that I have gotten through some pretty tough times medically.

I LOVE the 80's and I also LOVE the boys of Tinseltown who doesn't? I mean they do rock...my world anyway!

So a GREAT BIG CONGRATS on your news from my little tiny post!

All my best
Amy xoxo
Park-Avenue Princess
of Royal Reviews

Breanna said...

Congrats!

I don't know if the contest is still open or not. Thought I'd try, just in case.

-Breanna
queenbloop@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

ooo that would be so cool if Matt Damon stared in a movie version of your book! I've really been wanting to buy Twisted Sisters, so that would be exciting!

Rachael Stein said...

congrats!!! and please enter me :D

Anonymous said...

that's awesome :D

-Samantha
(ssclarinet@hotmail.com)

Beverly Stowe McClure said...

Aw, Matt Damon is one of my favorite actors. And I'd love to read your new book. Congratulations. Have a great weekend.

Beverly

Anonymous said...

muchissimo congrats =]

can't wait to read TS =]

Mercedes (words on blueboard)
yayawriter@yahoo.com

princessnikki said...

Matt Damon coming to town was the best...you were very right Steph...he was a very kind and generous person! The whole movie thing in our town?! NO way...:) Still hard to get over...and they have been gone a week. Thanks for the awesome reads btw!! Nikki.

Lenore Appelhans said...

If I am not too late, here's my entry!

Marley Gibson said...

Took me a while to figure out that was Matt Damon. LOL!!

Huge CONGRATS on your new sale!!!!!

= )