the neverending story

The NeverEnding Story is on tv right now...and I can't help but watch it. I don't think I've seen it since the mid 80s, when it was originally released, and I remember it being really sad and scary...and now I see why I remember it that way. It is sad! It is scary! But what a wonderful story...

Bastian, a human boy who has lost his mother, finds an antique book and, in reading it, has a chance to save a fantasy world from the nothing--the emptiness that's left when people lose hope and lose track of their dreams. Through the story of Atreyu, a young boy hero, Bastian becomes connected to Fantasia, a world filled with wonderful characters and charming creatures. Over the course of the movie, it becomes clear that Bastian's imagination is the key to saving the fantasy world.

The best part? To save the world, Bastian must read a book all the way to the end.

What an awesome concept!

Yeah, the movie is cheaply made, with some ridiculously bad sound editing and laughable special effects...but, just like I did when I was six and watched it for the first time, I find myself overlooking all that in favor of believing that the imagination...and books...can conquer all.

Fine Arts Foundation Debutante Ball

As many of you know, THE SEASON tells the story of three girls' during the London Season of 1815.  Alex, Ella and Vivi are seventeen, daughters of wealthy aristocrats, and members of the ton--a french term used to encompass the best and brightest of London society. All these factors make them ideal debutantes...at least, on paper.

What many don't know is that the "Season"--and particularly the Debutante Ball--is still very much alive and well...on both sides of the Atlantic. Periodically, I hope to feature some of the young women who continue to take part in this old and revered tradition here at MacLeanSpace...to remind myself (and my readers) that girls like Alex, Ella and Vivi aren't so hard to find after all.

For example, in Debutante News this week...

The Denver Fine Arts Foundation released what seems to be an incredibly talented group of young debutantes into Denver society this week at the organization's 2008 Debutante Ball, held at the University of Denver. There are some AMAZING photos of the Denver event over at http://www.denverpost.com/seengallery. I'm not sure how long they'll stay up...but they're worth a look! My favorite is the father/daughter waltz shot, but the first & second escort shot is pretty impressive as well.

A play-by-play of the event is available at Joanne Davidson's society column in the Denver Post, complete with info on the receiving line, the father-daughter waltz, and dinner...filet mignon & oreo cheesecake. I promise you, if I'd known I was in for cute boys in tails and white gloves and that kind of meal, i would have begged my parents to move to a city that had a cotillion.

I found this story of new debs Brittany and Lindsey McMorris particularly charming--Brittany and Lindsey are twins...both presented by an exceedingly proud father with the help of their first escort--who also happened to be their brother--Brock. How sweet!

Suffice to say, Denver Debs are having a great week. Welcome to society, ladies!

a silly reason why i love my dog:

when he's really excited and totally crazy, you can scratch the place where his ear meets his temple in just the right way and he loses all control of his head and groans as if to say, "OH! That's GOOOOOOOD. I forgot how good petting can be."  

He's funny.  

publisher's weekly spring sneak peek!

ok...so it's super cheesy and dorky and whatever...i know. but i'm in print! in REAL print! I'm on page 134 of this week's Publisher's Weekly! woot! right at the top, under Orchard Books...There I am, along with my sister (and brother) authors, Mark Teague, Sam Llewellyn (whose book, Lyonesse, I am DYING to read), Lisa McCourt & Laura J. Bryant, and Marion Dane Bauer & Ivan Bates.

ok...fine...so it's not the New York Times. But baby steps, people. Yay! For those of you who are not PW subscribers and still want to be in the know about my fabulous publishing siblings, click here or just read:

SCHOLASTIC/ORCHARD
Orchard Books cracks up with Funny Farm by Mark Teague, a visit to a giggle-inducing barnyard; Lyonesse Book I: The Well Between the Worlds by Sam Llewellyn, first in a middle-grade fantasy series; Yummiest Love by Lisa McCourt, illus. by Laura J. Bryant, featuring exchanges between parent and child; The Season by Sarah MacLean, involving romance, intrigue and murder in Regency London; and One Brown Bunny by Marion Dane Bauer, illus. by Ivan Bates, a counting book of forest animals.

Yay! (Also...note the new tag below! Hopefully, I'll have reason to use it more than just this once!)

rufus sewell-prince of evil

i'm watching a knight's tale (it seems that every channel is playing heath ledger movies in honor of the dark night), and i can't help but realize that rufus sewell never ever gets a chance to play the hero.  my word. is he the evilest of evil?  true wicked personified? hatred and loathing and fury all wrapped into one swarthy, olive-skinned man? quoth eric: "with a name like that, could he be anything else?" 

poor rufus.  and here's the thing...he's an extremely handsome man, empirically. but i look at him...and shudder.  and not in a good way.

but paul bettany is totally dreamy, right? ;) 

the one that got away

so, as i've mentioned, i'm working on a new project, a romance that revolves around catching the uncatchable.  in this particular case, i was inspired by the concept of the one that got away. 

we've all got one of these--the boy in our college chem lab with the great smile who seemed the perfect catch, but whom we could never quite muster the courage to speak to; the girl in high school we dreamed of but who never quite noticed us; the boyfriend who dumped us because he just couldn't commit; the girl who we dumped because we were just plain dumb.  The ones that got away. The ones that might have been. 

Now, that's not to say that we didn't turn out just fine--in many cases, we crawled into the tall grass, licked our wounds and then, several days and far too many pints of coconut sorbet later, we rose again to meet the world--and the next one.  Who maybe, just maybe, turned out to be The One...not just the one that got away.

But the project I'm working on explores the age old question: "What if the one that got away was The One?"  And, more than that, "What if we got another chance?"  

My heroine, Callie, is in this very dilemma.  She's been in love with that proverbial guy from chem lab for her entire life (if they had chem labs in regency england--or if women went to college in regency england--this metaphor would be perfect, but just go with it).  And now, it's her 10 year college reunion, and she's got her chance.  He's still single.  She's still single.  But how does she get him to notice her now that she's a decade older and a decade shyer--and he's a decade darker?  Here's her chance to finally catch the one that got away...but how?  Especially when he's so very handsome and she's so very...well...plain. 

And that's the premise of the love story I'm working on. 

I should say that I actually caught the one that got away, so this is a premise that's rather near and dear to my heart.  But Callie's story is far more exciting than my own.  At least, it's shaping up to be.  

Now it's your turn...do you have a one that got away story?  willing to share? 

One Day You're In...

FINALLY!  Project Runway Season 5! WOOT! 

Oh, Tim Gunn, how I have missed you, my pet!  

These designers are Teh Whack. (Who names themself Suede? Doesn't that seem a little too obvious for a fashion designer?) I don't care.  I've been waiting FOREVER for this to be on! My toe is already feeling better.  

Here's my question, though.  Have these people not watched this show before?  Not only is the Gristedes challenge a repeat from Season One, you're asked to select your materials from a SUPERMARKET and you choose tablecloths?  WTF?  Isn't the 'grocery store' part of this challenge kind of obvious--BE CREATIVE!  Oy.  I'm not a designer, but in the immortal words of Gob Bluth, 'Come ON!'

My prediction:  Kelli for the win. Hook and eye closures made from notebooks? Stop it.

My Extravagant Purchase

So...I'm working on a new project. I'm about 40 pages and a full, detailed outline in...and I'm struggling. I don't even really want to talk about it because I'm at this horrible superstitious point where I feel like I could seriously curse myself and then all this work (and an idea I really love) could be up the creek without the proverbial paddle.

This weekend, the artist blamed her tools. Clearly, the reason why my new project is struggling is because my computer was sub par. Right? Well, that's what I thought. So I trotted off to the Apple Store in SoHo and was the only person on the planet who bought an Apple product other than the iPhone. I met a lovely young man genius who sold me a fancy pants MacBook. Which is uber fast and uber shiny and oh-so-heavenly. Of course, Eric has been booting and loading and organizing since I bought it, so I haven't actually got my hands on it with the exception of the 15 minutes I was awake this morning before him and I checked email and weather...but wow! so fast!

I'm feeling really really good about this--THIS is the computer that's going to get the creative juices flowing. THIS computer is so great--it almost makes me believe it could write my book for me. But I guess Steve Jobs hasn't cornered that market.

Yet.

on sale now! omg!

so...i was on goodreads this morning, feeding my addiction, and i searched myself.  yes...i'm that self-involved.  but look!  i'm there!  the season is there! omg! 

so, of course, this fed my narcissistic tendencies, and look! i'm on amazon, too!  no photos, no descriptions, and it appears i'm categorized as 9-12 instead of 13 and up, but whatever!  so cool! this could well be the most freaky-deaky experience ever.  

now, i'm off to send an email to my mom.  :) 

Spirit Fingers!

A confession. I am a true sucker for cheesy teen movies, which probably isn't such a surprise to those of you who saw my altogether too serious critique of How to Deal.

This weekend, my in laws are in town from Fresno, California and, thanks to my Seattle mishap, I'm locked in my apartment, foot elevated and icing while my hubby and his rents are tooling around Brooklyn. In a few hours, I have to get up and start working on dinner, because we're having our bffs over to introduce his fam into our world (I'll let you imagine how that goes). But I'm in my own little heaven watching a Bring It On marathon. Yes. Marathon. That's 4 movies, three of which went straight to video. Even worse--watching it on ABC Family, so every even remotely bad word is replaced. Which makes it particularly bad...but I don't care. Because when Sparky Polaski comes on screen with his spirit fingers, I just can't resist.



Does this make me less of a person? You can tell me the truth. I can take it.

this little piggy went to seattle

I am traveling in Seattle on business for 36 hours...traveling on business is never as fun as you think it's going to be...it usually involves way more work than you thought you were going to do (read...no time to go to Pike Place Market or the Space Needle), it almost always means eating at the same restaurant for multiple meals in a row (although in this particular case, it's a GREAT Greek restaurant so, thank goodness for small favors.), and you miss your dog. And your husband.

But this trip takes the cake on not being as fun as I thought it would be. Besides the six and a half hour flight (have i mentioned i LOATHE flying?) and the two hour meeting this morning that turned into six hours of work on an ulcer-inducing project, I broke my toe. Yes. You read that right. I broke. My toe. My pinky toe. Who does that, you ask?

I do.

And I know it's lame and there's nothing I can do about it and I should just get over it and keep the damn thing elevated and iced and pop some advil and be a grown up, but first, ow. And second, wah. I'm in a hotel room in a city I've never been to (and one which I was really excited to visit) and I just want to lay around with my dog and watch Project Runway and be pampered and mooned over.

so...wah.

stupid seattle.

off to seattle...like alice down the rabbit hole

i swear i'm going to blog more. as a present for being so very patient, here's a nifty little video that makes me smile: