Category Archives: Misc

Check out this fabulous list of summer reads put together by Tracie Banister — author, blogger, and co-moderator of the wonderful #ChickLitChat. I’m honored to be included!

If I ever get my act together, I’d love to follow suit and post my own list as well. But for now, it’s back to work on Damsels in Distress … and my upcoming blog tour … and this dear little bun in my oven.

Image courtesy of samuiblue / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Weekly Wrap-up:

Bestseller Giveaway

Bestselling author Miranda Dickinson is giving away a signed copy of Take a Look at Me Now through Tuesday (US addresses only, please).  Continue reading →

Photo linked from Broadway.org. Credit: Heidi Gutman

A couple months ago, I posted about “Newsies,” a 1992 film that holds a sacred place in my heart because:
1) It gave me, at nine years old, my very first celebrity crush
2) The harmonies in the songs still do this fluttery, soaring thing to the inside of my chest
3) It shows the little guy defeating the giant with nothing but the power of the press

Looking at this list, I have to wonder how the film influenced my becoming both a journalist and a singer (through college but since neglected, to my chagrin). One of my best friends and fellow “Newsies” nut also happens to be a journalist. I’m not so sure that’s a coincidence.

But I digress. The point is I that was fiercely loyal to 1992’s “Newsies.” And not just to Christian Bale’s Jack Kelly with the red bandana, but to Crutchie and Racetrack and Davey and all of Brooklyn too. I knew every word by heart and for a while, “Are you a ‘Newsies’ fan?” was one of the first things I asked when meeting someone new. So when I found out that Broadway was adapting it, I was a little skeptical. Then, when I found out they CHANGED the storyline (gasp!) … SCRAPPED my beloved man Denton (hyperventilating) … and REWROTE many of the lyrics so carved into my brain (convulsing on the floor) … I was just about ready to form a picket line.

But to make a long story short, thanks to a half-price holiday deal and the desire to have a girls’ day with my mom, I found myself sitting in seat 5, row HH of the Nederlander Theatre’s mezzanine last Wednesday.

And I stand humbly corrected.

First, Corey Cott was phenomenal as Jack Kelly. Not only could his voice run circles around Bale’s (no big surprise there), but he really made the character his own. Lovable and goofy but conflicted and strong … he didn’t just try to imitate Bale’s version. Not at all. He took it and made it so much better. And with thousands of fiercely loyal fans holding him under a microscope, that is NOT an easy task! Continue reading →

Bassinet? Check.

Crib? Check.

Stroller? Check.

Jane Eyre for babies? You betcha!

While flipping through my issue of Kiwi Magazine the other day, hours after finally starting my own ever-daunting baby registry, I came across something that I simply had to share. It’s called BabyLit, and it’s a phenomenal way to  introduce your little bibliophile-to-be to the world of classic literature.

The illustrated board books take on masters like Twain, Austen, Tolstoy, and Shakespeare–all while teaching kids how to count and identify colors. Check out the great selection of titles, almost all priced at $9.99, at babylit.com.

I am not a science person. Humanities, writing, the arts–that’s me, through and through. Start talking formulas and numbers and medical compounds, and I’ll last a few polite minutes before I completely mentally check out.

But when someone finds a way to make science fun–to apply it to things we know well, in a way that is amusing and informative at the same time–then I just might stick around a bit longer.

The folks over at livescience.com have done a pretty good job of that. By putting some of our most beloved fairy tales under a microscope, they’ve come up with some pretty interesting ideas about what that apple really did to Snow White, how a prince could have actually turned into a beast, and why the Magic Mirror is truly more fact then fiction. (As for the latter, if you’ve started reading Desperately Ever After yet, you’ve already begun to suspect this.)

Click here to read the full article.