Heather Davis...Up, Up...and Away!!

Can I just tell you how proud I am of Heather? This is her first published book to hit the shelves and what an awesome cover! Who wouldn't pick this up?



I remember the first time I met Heather at the Chick Lit Writers party. And then, I remember when Heather won the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart award. She looked fabulous and gave an eloquent speech. I knew that gal was going places.



And look at her now. If this book isn't already in your TBR pile, then go out and get it now.

Since we're talking about firsts, I thought I'd share a first experience of mine that I just had. As you all know, I'm going through a big life change and have been living a bit more of an adventurous life. Our readers know that I learned to SCUBA dive (and recently encountered about sixty or so dogfish sharks on a dive in New England), but I also did something that I've wanted to do foooooooooooooooooorever!

I went parasailing!



You know, I'm a writer...but I find it hard to form the exact words to explain what an amazing experience this was. For lack of a better description, it's like you're ascending into heaven. It's so ridonkulously peaceful, I can't even begin to tell you. The wind is quiet and serene and there's nothing but the soft flap of the sail behind you and your own thoughts.

First, you get strapped into the life jacket and then put in the harness at the back of the boat. You sit on your bottom and grip the bar over head. The shoot is fully inflated and then the boat takes off.



As the boat gets up speed, the rope is released little by little until you are about five hundred feet in the air. NOT even kidding! We were up there for about 12 minutes before they started reeling us in. At the very end, before you get back to the boat, they stop so that you plunge into the water up to your waist. Very refreshing. Our guy even dunked us twice upon our yelled request.



Then, they reel you back in and you're done. All in a matter of moments. And you realize...I did it!

It truly is breathtaking!



And as you know, Heather's giving away books this week, so if you'd like to be entered in today's drawing, please leave a comment in the trail and let us know if you've ever been parasailing. Have you ever wanted to? Do you think I'm insane? LOL!! Feel free to leave as many comments as you'd like.

Again...major congrats to Heather!!!

Hugs and love,
Marley = )

GHOST HUNTRESS: THE GUIDANCE
THE OTHER SIDE: A TEEN'S GUIDE TO GHOST HUNTING AND THE PARANORMAL
Both available now!

Famous Firsts

For no particular reason, my post today is about famous firsts. (Okay, so there is a particular reason, but you'll have to read to the end to find out.)


Famous First Lines:

• It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. ~ Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. ~ 1984 by George Orwell
• It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. ~ The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
• It was a pleasure to burn. ~ Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug. ~ Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Television Firsts:

• First couple to share a bed? Mary Kay and John Stearns on the 1940s sitcom, Mary Kay and Johnny.
• First openly gay character? Peter Panama on 1972's The Corner Bar.
• First interracial kiss? Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura on a 1968 episode of Star Trek.
• First commercial? Bulova Watch Company in 1941.
• First televised tour of the White House? Jackie Kennedy in 1962.
  

American Firsts:

• Anne Bradstreet — first published American woman writer (1650)
• George Washington — first President of the United States (1789)
• Elizabeth Blackwell — first American woman to receive a medical degree (1849)
• Hiram Revels — first African-American senator (ironically, he took over the term of Jefferson Davis, who had resigned to become president of the Confederacy)
• Victoria Woodhall — first woman to run for President of the United States (1872)
• Annie Moore — first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island (1892)
• Teddy Roosevelt — first American to win the Nobel peace prize (1906)
• Alan Shepard — first American in space (1961)
• Thurgood Marshall — first African-America supreme court justice (1967)

And now for the timely event that has me posting about firsts today ...

first African-American president of the United States

BARACK OBAMA

What a momentous day.

Hugs,
TLC

OH. MY. GODS. (available now!)
GODDESS BOOT CAMP (coming June 2009)
teralynnchilds.com

Best First Kiss...Evah!

In celebration of Tina's awesome new release, THE ABC'S OF KISSING BOYS, we're talking first kisses. Nothing like them. Nothing like that roller coaster feeling in your stomach with the up and down of anticipation and excitement. And what better way to get that across than on the big screen. I have to say...without a doubt, the best evah on-screen kiss is as follows...



MOULIN ROUGE...wow...what a movie...and what a first kiss! Christian and Satine figuring out they're meant to be and sharing an exploding (literally) kiss underneath the loving watch of the songful moon. And of course, it's Ewan McGregor...so that's a bonus! = )

Isn't that what a first kiss feels like? That you're the only two people in the world and the sky explodes in rapture while the moon bursts into song and serenades you?



What was your first kiss like? Were there fireworks and singing? Tell us in the comment section to be entered to win a copy of Tina's awesome book, THE ABC'S OF KISSING BOYS. Winner will be announced next Wednesday!

Hugs,
Marley = )

GHOST HUNTRESS: THE AWAKENING (Coming May 2009, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) GHOST HUNTRESS: THE GUIDANCE (Coming October 2009, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
GHOST HUNTRESS: The REASON (Coming May 2010, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
CHRISTMAS MIRACLES (Coming October 2009, St. Martin's Press)
SORORITY 101: Zeta or Omega? (Available from Puffin Books)
SORORITY 101: The New Sisters (Available from Puffin Books)

First Dreams: Trying to Fly High

I’ve always wanted to make a living as a writer, but reasonably understood I had to find a way to support myself at least at first. No career appealed more than the glamour and excitement of becoming a flight attendant…


So, as a high school senior, I applied to a flight attendant school. Someone from the school called to set up an appointment for their counselor to interview me in my home. I’ll admit I was a nervous wreck when the day came, and it didn’t help that my parents and I sat and sat and sat, until I realized--like the jerk I’d go on to write in TOP TEN USES FOR AN UNWORN PROM DRESS--that the interviewer had stood me up! With my confidence shaky and the fact there was never any follow-up whatsoever from the school, I dropped the whole thing and enrolled in college.

But some years later, while otherwise employed, I saw that a top international airline was hiring flight attendants. On a whim, I wrote for an application, and to my delight, made the first cut and got called in for an interview.

There were at least 15 applicants in the room. The interviewer would state a question, and one at a time, we’d stand and respond. This was rather intimidating since it was easy to see who was good and who wasn’t. In fact, some of the candidates had been interviewing with all the airlines and had real polish. Still, I felt like I held my own with the first couple of questions, but totally bombed out on the third because by the time they got to my end of the table, all the good answers had been given. So I was like, “Yeah, what they said.” (Ugh!)

Then came the written test. I figured I had to be smart and fast to make up for my blunder. The test was a breeze, and indeed, I was the first to turn my test back over. But later, when recounting this to a friend whose sister WAS a flight attendant for that airline, she grimaced. She said that this airline tended to disqualify applicants who finished the test too quickly because they thought it a warning that that person would get bored and quit too soon after training. I have no idea if this is true. And my guess is I was "out" before we started the test. But I didn't hear from them again.

In any case, I always enjoy chatting with the attendants on flights, who clearly work very hard. In fact, on a recent flight, I heard one tell another during drink clean-up, “When people ask what I do for a living, I say I’m in waste management.” They both laughed, and quietly, I did, too, thinking we all have beefs with our careers--but hey, at least they got the second call-back!


Don’t get me wrong…I wouldn’t trade my my writing career for anything…and who knows, maybe some day I’ll get to live out my flight attendant fantasy inside the pages of a book!

What I'm Reading: The Undomestic Goddess, Sophie Kinsella

Tina

Tina Ferraro
Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress
How to Hook a Hottie, Spring, 2008
The ABC’s of Kissing Boys, Spring, 2009
www.tinaferraro.com

First Heartbreak

Warning: This seemed very traumatic at the time... but keep in mind I was only sixteen.

My junior year of high school, I was in Art 3. It was one of those strange classes that had a complete mix of different types of students in there--some jocks, some geeks, some stoners, some just plain old normal kids (me). There was also a boy named Jason. He was blonde and blue-eyed (Note: This might be one reason I'm not a fan of blonde heroes.) and was relatively new to my school. My crush was so, omigod, obvious. Somehow I managed to get to the point where I could be semi-chatty with him if we passed in the hall.

I also had one very good friend in the class, and she and I would sit and chat about boys and Jason and classes and Jason and, oh, everything and Jason. (All while not letting Jason know we were talking about him.)

Well, my very good friend was oh-so-very-sophisticated because she was engaged and therefor a certified expert on boys. She finally convinced me that I should ask him out! We spent weeks planning exactly how I would do the deed.

"Just act cool," she would say. "Like it's no big deal."

"Uh-huh," I said, my stomach going into convulsions even thinking about it.

"When you talk to him in the hall, just say, 'Hey. So, you wanna go see a movie this weekend?' No big deal."

Sure. No big deal for her. She was engaged! Anyway, eventually out of desperation and the desire to get her off my back, I did it. Jason stopped to chat with me in the hall and I even managed to ask my oh-so-casual question without heaving on his shoes.

"No," he said. "I can't."

My heart plummeted. "Oh," I said brilliantly. And, in an act that would be dissected in detail later, asked, "Why not?"

Because he was grounded... or so he said. But let me tell you, you have not felt shame until you have a very good friend squeal, "You did not ask him 'why not'!" Apparently, that is even worse than getting rejected... which, of course, felt pretty rotten at the time. Apparently, I was just supposed to blithely accept in a "whatever" kinda way. Apparently, I will never be that cool.

Hugs,
TLC

OH. MY. GODS.
Dutton Children's Books, May 2008
teralynnchilds.com

It’s Monday!

We’ve done another switcheroo on posting days, and I’m going to be the Monday kick-off Buzz Girl.


(Special thanks to Garfield for showing us his enthusiasm for Mondays. I must say, however, I like them a bit more!)

In continuing our theme of “Firsts”, this week we’ll be discussing “First Loves or First Heartbreaks”. This really sent my mind reeling because the simple truth is, I can’t pinpoint my first in either case.

I’ve always had a vivid imagination and I took my across-the-classroom crushes to heart. So I could arguably say my first love and first heartbreak happened as early as 4th grade, when I couldn’t get the totally cute boy with the too short pants and playground dirt on his cheek to give me the time of day. Because the love felt real; and so did the rejection.

I look back on my early romances (good and bad; real and imaginary) as learning tools, fodder for the marriage that I want to last forever, and for characterization and plots for my writing. And so far, so good!

I’m curious to see what the other Buzz Girls talk about this week…if there is a special boy in their pasts, or a collection that fly through their memories like, well, buzzing bees.

And I’d love to hear the same from our readers! Do tell: one first major love, or many minor?

What I’m Reading: Lean, Mean Thirteen, Janet Evanovich

Tina

Tina Ferraro
Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress
How to Hook a Hottie, Spring, 2008
The ABC’s of Kissing Boys, Spring, 2009
www.tinaferraro.com

My Writing, From the Beginning

I probably shouldn't admit this, but my very first attempt at writing a book was when I was probably in sixth grade. It was a paranormal action-adventure, you might say, about a little boy's toy soldiers who came to life at night and carried out missions like getting crackers and cheese from the kitchen. Um, it was never really more than a few pages... and will stay that way. (Yes, I know I'm not: a) a little boy, b) an action-adventure author, and c) a fan of cheese and crackers... okay, maybe I am a fan of cheese and crackers.)

My first attempt at as a grown-up author was a Western/Colonial historical called A DAUGHTER'S PROMISE, about an Texas-raised heroine whose father sends her back to Boston to live with her godfather when he dies. The godfather just happened to have a son her age and, well, needless to say there was a romance brewing. I think I wrote about fifty pages of that one. It was all very complex and emotional and heart-wrenching. (Note to future readers: my books are not emotional and heart-wrenching reads.)

Next was a contemporary romance set in the Miami Beach club scene, titled, um, CLUB SCENE. This was my first real attempt at a whole book and--although I got bored halfway through and switched to the book that I would eventually finish--taught me the most about how to write effectively, how to compose and construct a story, and how to actually make myself sit down and write. Plus, my hero was based on Paul Walker and, well, we all know how I feel about Paul Walker. Um... yum!

I think the most important thing to keep in mind about all these "first tries" is that each taught us something about writing--yes, even the ones we never finished--and without all those baby steps, we wouldn't be the authors we are today.

Hugs,
TLC

OH. MY. GODS.
Dutton Children's Books
May 2008