Bad Girls: Fun to Write, Fun to Hate!

I finally finished edits on Masquerade and just sent the manuscript off to my proof reader--who happens to be my amazing mother-in-law!  She catches errors 999 people out of 1000 would miss.

Yesterday, when I talked to her about the manuscript, I mentioned my bad girl, Lavinia. Lavinia was certainly a fun character to write, and my mother-in-law and I agreed that it's enjoyable to read about a character you love to hate! This brought to mind the chilling movie Leave Her to Heaven, a 1945 film adapted from a novel by the same name, written by Ben Ames Williams.

There's a major bad girl in this narrative, on film portrayed by the beautiful Gene Tierney.  According to Wikipedia, "The story revolves around a femme fatale who entraps a husband and commits several crimes motivated by her insane jealousy over everything concerning him."

In order to be really bad, there's got to be an element of mental illness. My character, Lavinia, is no doubt crazy, as is Tierney's psychopathic Ellen Berent.  A review of the movie Leave Her to Heaven follows from Rotten Tomatoes:  

Gene Tierney portrays a beautiful but unstable woman who marries successful novelist Cornel Wilde. Tierney wants to spend all her time with her new husband, but finds it impossible to do so thanks to his work and the frequent visits of family and friends. When Wilde's crippled younger brother (Darryl Hickman) comes to the couple's summer house to stay, Ms. Tierney indirectly causes the boy to drown. Later, upon discovering that she's pregnant, Tierney deliberately falls down the stairs, choosing to miscarry rather than share her husband's affections with an infant. When it becomes clear that family friend Jeanne Crain is attracted to her husband, Ms. Tierney commits suicide, making her death appear to be murder and framing Crain for the "crime." In court, Ms. Crain is mercilessly grilled by prosecuting attorney Vincent Price, who happens to be Tierney's ex-lover! 

Creepy, chilling, tragic and worth watching!  Have you ever seen Leave Her to Heaven? Who are some of your favorite bad girls in books and movies?

Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

Merle Oberon's Secret

One of my favorite movies is the 1939 film version of Wuthering Heights, starring the extraordinarily beautiful Merle Oberon, a talented actress during the 1930s and '40s.

As Mother's Day has just passed, I must say, I find it sad the way Miss Oberon treated her own mother--her dark skinned mother--by passing her off as a servant. Throughout her lifetime, Merle Oberon kept her ethnic origin a secret.

 About.com says "Merle Oberon earned an Oscar nod for her acting in 1935’s “The Dark Angel” and more recognition for playing Cathy in 1939’s Wuthering Heights. But off screen, Oberon feared that her secrets would be exposed. She wasn’t solely white nor was she born in Tasmania like actor Errol Flynn, as she told people. Actually, she was born in India to an Indian mother and an Anglo father. Rather than disown her mother, though, Oberon passed her off as a servant. When the actress visited Tasmania later in life, the press hounded her for details about her upbringing, forcing her to admit that she wasn't born there. Still, Oberon did not confess to being Indian."

For a more in depth look into Merle Oberon's life and deceit regarding her origins, check out this article about the 2002 documentary "The Trouble with Merle".

Have you seen any of Merle Oberon's movies?

Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

Easy Chicken and Rice

It seems like there's never enough time in the day, especially for cooking!  So here's something scrumptious that's easy and delicious from the Campbell's Kitchen.  It's also one of those comfort food standards that brings back memories of your mother's home-cooking.  Ah...  

My mom, as a matter of fact, gave me this recipe years ago.  I'd just graduated from library school, gotten a job in Georgia, and had my own apartment--I also didn't how to cook much of anything.

This is super easy for a busy day, but can also be served to dinner guests--it's that good! For better flavor, be sure to use Campbell's Soup, Lipton Onion Soup Mix, and Minute Rice, not the store brands. Also, if you don't like mushrooms, you can use cream of chicken, cream of asparagus or cream of broccoli soup.

Enjoy!

Easy Chicken and Rice

8 chicken thighs (I use boneless/skinless)
2 10 3/4 oz. cans Campbell's cream of mushroom soup (fat free can be used)
2 2/3 cups milk (skim is fine)
2 2/3 cups Minute Rice
2 1 oz. packets Lipton Onion Soup
salt, pepper and paprika

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly coat a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine, rice, soup, soup mix and milk.  Pour into baking dish. Place chicken on top of rice mixture.  Lightly sprinkle chicken pieces with salt, pepper and paprika.  Cover.  Bake for one hour covered. Uncover and bake 20-30 minutes longer.

Delicious can't get any easier!

Have you ever had this chicken and rice dish or a variation of it?

Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

Inspiration From Siri

Technology is beast!

For a writer, inspiration can strike anywhere, any time. Over the weekend, for example, I got a very strange idea for a short story. Let me take a moment to tell you how it all began.

I'll start by saying that I'm not a huge fan of technology.  I'm still stuck in the 20th Century and learn only what I need to when it comes to laptops and cell phones.

However, my oldest son is somewhat of a techno-geek.  Sometimes I wonder if he's really mine.  Then I remember the labor pains--and the fact that Mr. McKenzie is also a bit of a geek!

For the past few months, my number one son has been saving up for an iPod.  Christmas money, birthday money, allowance, and the salary he earns from a job with his dad (which he's been frequently fired from, and then subsequently rehired) recently enabled him to make his dream purchase.

One of his favorite iPod features is Siri, which according to Apple "is the intelligent personal assistant that helps you get things done just by asking."  In other words, you can ask questions like what's today's weather forecast, where's the nearest gas station, etc., and she answers. Pretty useful technology, right?

So, what do you suppose a fourteen-year-old and a soon to be twelve-year-old would ask Siri...just for fun?  Well, I must say, I've never heard so many giggles.  Here's a sampling of some discussions that transpired over the weekend between the sultry-voiced Siri and my two boys:

The Mysterious Siri

Son:  Siri, do you like chocolate?
Siri:   Surprisingly, I have never tasted chocolate.
Son:  Siri, do you like pizza?
Siri:   I like whatever you like.
Son:  Siri, you suck!
Siri:  I am still here for you.

So here's my story idea:  What would happen if a guy fell in love with Siri? Hey, it's only fiction, and stranger things could happen! What's something a little strange that's sparked your imagination?

Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

Dedicated to My Dad

I apologize for a long winded post, but a lot has happened in the past month--some good, some sad--but all has impacted my ability to blog, as well as visit my friends in the blogosphere.  Now life is almost back to normal and I can return to my usual routine.  Yesterday I put away about six loads of laundry, and today cleaned house for the first time in over two weeks!

The tumultuous times began around this time last month.  My youngest was scheduled to go on a four day class trip to Washington, DC. He did, and had a great time, yet prepping for the trip and worrying about him traveling without family for the first time was a little nerve-wracking.

At about the time of his departure, I had almost finished my final read through of Masquerade before handing off to be edited. Also looming on the horizon was a reading for Escape that I'd scheduled for April 20. After the youngest headed off to DC, I compiled my guest list and sent out invitations for the reading.

Then I received the bad news that my dad was admitted to the hospital for some testing. He'd suffered a third heart attack in October and had never regained his strength.  At eighty-six, he had a pacemaker, defibrillator and I'm sot sure how many stints. Not many survive three heart attacks, and now my dad was suffering from congestive heart failure.

When my youngest got back from DC, spring break started. Now I had to start prepping for my oldest one's class trip to the Bahamas in May.  We spent some of school break shopping for snorkeling gear (the "real stuff" unfortunately, as advised by the school, not the economical variety available at Wal-Mart and Target).

At the start of the break, my dad was released from the hospital, but very weak. The kids and I went to visit with him at home every day. He'd received a hospital bed and oxygen device from Hospice.  Although the doctors had given him three months to a year to live, he was convinced his time was slim.

He wanted my sister from Los Angeles to come home so he could see her before "it was too late." She immediately dropped everything and came the next day.  And I'm so glad she did, because my dad's health rapidly deteriorated after her arrival.

With the reading quickly approaching, I talked to my mom about canceling. She advised me not to. Prepping for it went by the wayside. When the kids went back to school, I was at my mom's every day to help  her and my sister care for my dad.

My dad had come home from the hospital the Monday after Easter, but died last Monday, two weeks later. I didn't learn about the tragedy in Boston until that evening.

While preparing for my dad's memorial service, my heart still wasn't into doing the reading.  But my mom told me something that my dad had said, "If anything happens to me before the reading, don't let Maria cancel it." Well, that made me cry.

I did the reading Saturday and dedicated it to him. Thought I'd share that dedication today:

My dad was always a big dreamer.  He was a numbers man from an accounting background who became a real estate broker. He loved envisioning what his investments could do, whether they be in property, art or stocks.

I am not a numbers person. I’m much better with words. I’m sure my dad was a superior math student, but based on this story, I’m not sure if his language arts grades were as strong.  In first grade while learning about conjunctions, the teacher asked my dad to use the word but in a sentence.  His response, "I have a butt."

Like my dad, however, I’ve always been a dreamer.  But my dreams involve imaginary people and stories.  It’s ironic that my dad always admonished me for daydreaming! "Maria," he’d say, "you have to stop daydreaming and pay attention in school." Little did I know that at some point my daydreams would turn into books.

My dad was also a romantic, like I am, but I didn’t realize this until I was grown. He knew I loved old movies, and one day he asked had I ever seen the 1945 film Love Letters with Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotton.  He’d seen it as a young man while serving overseas during WWII and had never forgotten it.  It was a great love story filled with passion and pain—the same kind of story I enjoy—and I was surprised that my dad had loved it so much—because it seems like what we’d now call a sappy woman’s movie.

When my parents saw Love Story back in the seventies, which one of them do you think carried on about what a great film it was?  My dad!

When I wrote my first book The Governor’s Sons, I was surprised that my dad read it.  And I say that because he wasn’t one to read novels. He’d read financial publications and news magazines—that was about it.  But he read my book and told me how much he enjoyed it, and that he even stayed up late one night to finish it because he just couldn’t put it down! I was thrilled and honored to hear this! Apparently, my story had enough romance, passion and pain to keep my him entertained!

And he never stopped dreaming that one day The Governor’s Sons would be made into a movie.  He was always dreaming up new ways to market it, and envisioning what people of influence could make things happen with it.

Well. no movie deals yet, but I’ll keep dreaming about that for my dad! 

I miss my dad a lot, but happy memories ease the pain of losing him a little.  

Do you share any similarities with your dad? Thanks for visiting, and have a great week!