Tube Tuesday

A cowgirl's fairy tale...

The clip this week is another goose-bumpy tearjerker for me. From - what else? - another of my favorite movies EVER. Pure Country is a perfect romance. He's a famous country music star who leaves his tour to find himself and falls for a country girl determined to make her own way in the world (who has absolutely no idea who he really is!). Along the way, we meet her hilarious, lovable brothers, his stoic fruit-of-the-earth grandma, her wise old granddad, his faithful friends... all believable and likeable characters. The movie climaxes with this scene. I can't help but get emotional when her grandpa and little brother tear up.

And oh my God. Just to imagine the fantasticness of having a cowboy like him all your own... dear George Strait is so darn clean and pure and cute! Another of my alltime biggest heart-throbs.

Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i4raUtb_iI&feature=related

Autumn
Got romance?

Things That Suck More Than Mondays

Uhmmm. Let's go with... forgetting that it's Monday? Only to arise and find from someone's post on Facebook that you forgot Monday and thus forgot to prepare a blog post...

It's a screwy Monday round our house anyway. The kiddos don't go back to school yet from Spring Break.
'Fuscius is home from helping friends move back to CO, but he's sick as a dog and resisting a visit to the doc (fever, cough, head cold, fever - did I mention fever?). Which means he'll probably run himself to the ground later in the week and eventually end up at the doc anyway.
It's snowy outside AGAIN and yes, I am totally over snow by now.

Silver lining in the cloud of Monday - friends back here instead of in yucky CA. woohoo!

Autumn
Got romance?

Friday Funny

Song lyrics done wrong (by young Fuscius-etta)


Aerosmith's Dude Walks Like a Lady (must be the high heels...?)

Technotronic's Pump Up the Jam... "Get yer beauty on the floor tonight, make my day..."

This one made me giggle so hard I almost wrecked:

Queen's Another One Bites the Bus.

Kids. Can't convince 'em of the right lyrics, can't turn up the music loud enough to drown out their singing.

Autumn Piper
Got romance?

Holy Spring Weather, Batman!

Criminy. I bought kites for my kids yesterday, but after getting up this morning to a winter wonderland, think I should've opted for the sleds on clearance!

This should make for an interesting drive to Grand Junction today. Dear Cornfuscius is "leavin' on a jet plane" for California to help our mahhvelous friends move back here. California almost sounds good right now...

Happy Thursday!

Autumn
Got romance?

Watcha Readin' Wednesday

This week's review subject: Hot Wheels and High Heels, by Jane Graves. **I read it on the Sony Reader.**

I first heard of this book from Dearreader.com and promptly moved it to my To Read List. If you haven't heard of dearreader.com, it's a neato service where you sign up for certain genres and every week day a small excerpt comes to your Inbox - one book per week - for you to sample. I've found several gems through this service. And the beauty is, if the novel just isn't "ringing your bell", you can simply delete the rest of the messages for the week. But I digress.

Hot Wheels is a fun story about a well-kept woman whose husband sends her on vacation and sells everything out from under her, then disappears before she returns. The repo man who comes to take her precious Mercedes is an unlikely candidate for next sugar daddy, while a mega-rich tycoon has everything she could want. When Darcy goes to work for John in the repo business, all sorts of problems arise. The premise is different, characters original, and the writing is clean.

I'd rate this a Nice Bang for Your Entertainment Buck. Well worth your time and money, but not necessarily worth a re-read. Pass it on to someone who’ll enjoy it and keep Jane Graves on your radar.

On the nightstand: Mine Till Midnight, by Lisa Kleypas

Autumn
Got romance?

Tube Tuesday

This is one of my favorite movie scenes, ever. It's got it all: romance, comedy, 3 of my most fave people (Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, and the always-stunning Billy Idol), a darn cute song, and at least one other person who feels just as strongly about Billy as I do. Plus, it gives me goosebumps and usually makes me tear up.

Very sweet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CYI5bKZMes

Happy Tubin'!

Autumn
Got romance?

Blog gone visitin'

What sucks more than Monday? When you visit a certain someone's blog and she redirects you to yet another site to actually read it (all because she's too darn lazy to write two separate entries for one day, and reasonably certain without her trusty Piper Patter followers, her blog at the other site would not see reader one).

The point is, I was le blogger du jour (extraordinaire?) for the LPI blog today. Catch me there, if it suits ya. It's all about the romance genre.

Happy Monday...

Piper
Romance is sexy!

Friday Funny

Cornfuscius had a clever and somewhat amusing idea the other night. We stayed in town for our daughter's choir concert and had dinner at McDonald's (on the finest for the Fusciuses). The entire time we were eating, the fryer timers were beeping and none of the employees seemed inclined to shut them off. This is extremely annoying, particularly for anyone who's ever worked there (long ago in a galaxy far, far away...). Fuscius' plan? Instead of the audible alarms to notify employees when the fries' time had expired, the workers all should wear shock collars. The first impulses would be light but as time goes on and they neglect their duties, the surges would increase....

Very satisfying image.

Since this plan will take time to implement, he settled with programming their phone number into his cell and calling the manager periodically during our meal to tell her it was time to shut off the beeper. Gotta love a man who's willing to find a new means to an end.

Happy Friday! If the weather holds, I'm hoping to play a round of golf with Fuscius today.

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!

Word Game

I'm a bit of a freak about words. Some things just excite me like they probably don't excite "normal" people. Today I'm thinking about words that are spelled the same both backward and forward.

Here's the list I've got so far, from various sources:

• Hannah
• toot
• wow
• nun
• poop (yeah I know. some of these are dumb)
• pop
• pip
• evil olive (LOL)
• noon
• gag
• mom
• dad
• bib
• damn mad
• race car (I bet my friend Sutton Fox likes this one ) - and yes, I did just totally name-drop!

Any others come to mind? If so, leave a comment.

Piper Denna

Romance is sexy!

Watcha Readin' Wednesday

I have been reading and I do have 2 book reviews to write.
Unfortunately, I've also been at work very much, which has entailed reading most of the Colorado Standardized Assessment Program tests to various kids. In case anybody's wondering, the point is to "level the playing field" for kids who read below grade level, so when they're tested in Math and Science, they don't fail because they couldn't read the question properly. This way they are only tested on what they know in Math and Science.

Oh - and I'm also "reading" Lone Star Trouble, albeit at a very slow rate, because I'm doing one final self-revision before foisting it on my editor. Let's just say since the last time I revised, my writing has "come a long way, baby".

Next week, Wednesday reviews will resume as usual.

Happy Spring solstice week!

On the Sony Reader: Once A Cowboy (so far a very good story) - a read I downloaded when Harlequin celebrated 60 years a while back with free ebooks.


Autumn
Got romance?

Happy Tubey Tuesy Patty Day!

Ahh. St. Patrick's Day. My first St. Patty's as a dedicated blogger.

In honor, and in keeping with the much-strived-for tradition of Tube Tuesday, here ya go:

How we should all treat St. Pat's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eteWVqVPcTQ

Something we should all strive to make.... uh, next year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9_d1aTnOLA&feature=related

Watching this chick and listening to the music makes me want to read a Nora Roberts trilogy (yes Amanda, I promise to start with Book 1 from now on...), or at the very least have a Freaky Friday experience and get to be her for a day (seriously - check out the guys who lead her off the stage).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yF1biEjnms&feature=PlayList&p=B6DEEA39B3A210E8&index=17

Have a safe and happy one!
And remember not to walk too close behind someone who's been into the corned beef and cabbage....

Piper
Romance is sexy!

What Sucks More Than Mondays?

One thing in particular has been super suckilicious lately - the wind. It's driving me absolutely batty.

Oh, and for the record, Spring Forward is still making mornings sucky around my house...

Autumn
Got romance?

Friday funny

In light of all the dumb emails I've received lately (mostly from inlaws, who unfortunately do not read this blog), I could not resist.

http://bob.bob.bofh.org/~robm/manual/virus/gullibility.html

Special thanks to Amanda (who has never sent me a dumb email), for alerting me that this is a serious condition.

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!

Another reason to go "e" for your next book

I'll keep this short and sweet, since this week is kicking my butt.

Ebooks are instant. You can shop and buy now and get it now! No waiting, no lines, no driving or shipping charges.

No complaints here.

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!

Watcha Readin' Wednesday

This week's review: What the Lady Wants by Jennifer Crusie.

Yes, another Crusie selection. It’s been a Jennifer Crusie month, what can I say? This book was one of her earlier works (copyright in my edition said 1995) and while I’d say her newer stuff is a little more riveting, it was still a fun read.

Mitch is posing as a private detective after making a bet with his stockbroker peers that he could run a PI Agency into the black in less than a year. His last week on the bet, it’s not looking good for him. Until Mae walks in dressed to the nines and hires him to find the missing diary of an uncle who died of a heart attack, but she insists was murdered (mostly to garner enough attention so he’ll take her case). The story is a whodunnit with a hot attraction mixed in. Mae’s surviving relatives are mob-wannabes and it seems pretty much everybody wanted this particular scheming, swindling uncle dead. The plot is cute, with excellent dialogue. I’d love to come across a Mitch, a man willing to face down multiple cut-throat male relatives for the woman he loves.

It took me some time to read this book on my Sony Reader (6 weeks!). Not because of the writing, but because of the formatting. It seems to be a print book the publisher decided to send out in ebook form as an afterthought. I’m glad it was available, I just wish all publishers would “get” that certain things need to be done to a file in order to make it into an ebook. Once a reader changes their font size, if the file isn’t properly formatted, paragraphs virtually fall apart. The dialogue tag from one character gets moved to the next paragraph, which is the next character’s dialogue. A page gets cut off with only 1 ½ lines of text on it. Or in the middle of a sentence, a paragraph breaks. This makes for very difficult reading. And while the file looks fine in the smallest typeface, publishers really need to plan for the adjusted sizes (just let them try to read a page in the smallest font!). For example, when going from print to ebook, page breaks need to be removed except for at the end of chapters (whereas in a to-print file, the page breaks are all specified).

The book itself, I give a Nice Bang for Your Entertainment Buck - Well worth your time and money. Pass it on to someone who’ll enjoy it and keep the author on your radar. Crusie just keeps getting better, and she was something to write home about from the start. I’m a fan.

Tube Tuesday

In honor of Read an Ebook Week, I found a couple of youtube videos about ebooks and what they are.

The first just cracked me up. In part because it was made before Kindle released, but also because of the notes viewers were posting a la CNN. Very funny. He did his best to explain the pros but obviously did not have his finger on the pulse of the bookbuying market.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jW6mdzTcrI

This is a CNET overview of the Sony Reader. A bit more of an advertisement than a 3rd party explanation, but it does a fantastic job of showing the "pros" of ebooks.

http://www.cnet.com/av/video/flv/universalPlayer/universalSmall.swf?allowFullScreen=false&type=id&value=50004415

This shows how cool reading ebooks is on the iPhone and iTouch (I totally dig how you actually turn pages and you get a visual bookmark!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjv-A7fo_60&feature=channel

This one reallly excited Cornfuscius. In fact, he downloaded it already. It's a FREE Kindle app for the iTouch and iPhone. So now Kindle formatted book are readable on the iTouch. They download directly to the device via 3G internet. Bitchin with a capital B.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9aeH99g-vM

So. Tuesday's reason for reading an ebook? It's way cool.

Autumn
Got romance?

Things That Suck More Than Mondays

Two words:

Spring. Forward.

And a happy, perky Monday to you today.

Autumn
Got romance?

Blog-forwarding 2

I didn't blog elsewhere, but author Amanda Young (who I've known since she was a wee starting-outter too) is featuring an interview with little old me today. She hit me with some fun, off-the-beaten-path questions.

See you over there!

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!

Blog-forwarding

I'm the blogger-girl over on the LPI Blog today.

See ya there!

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!

Watcha Readin' Wednesday - all 3B's

This week I'm happy to review Welcome to Temptation, by Jennifer Crusie.

Welcome to Temptation is a fun, fast read. It starts off with a bang (sisters Sophie and Amy are cruising into small town Temptation, Ohio to make a short film when they have a fender-bender with a local socialite couple), provides plenty of belly-laughs when we get to watch local city council meetings (our Hero, Phin, is a fourth-generation mayor and expected to keep winning elections to preserve the family name but sees the silliness in trivial town politics) and with all the flirting around the movie set, we get plenty of badda-bing (including more than one scorcher between Sophie and Phin). Mysteries abound: Who offed the starlet’s scummy despised-by-all ex husband? Who’s threatening Sophie and trying to kill her? Who attempted to frame her for the murder? Is Phin’s mother a really nasty piece of work who’ll end up Bad Guy #1, or is she just an overprotective mom with her own plans for his love life?

The characters totally pulled me in and the story kept me entertained. This was one of those books that really interrupted my life. I had a hard time putting it down to do anything (including sending Jennifer Crusie an email to tell her how awesome it is, which totally delayed my race to the finish, but I think is important. Surely even a successful author still loves to hear when readers enjoy her work!).

This book is a borderline Keeper - (I’ll probably send it along to very trusted friends who I know will return it, but I’ll make sure to get it back. Or else.) / Get Your Own Copy! - A book you love so much, no way are you loaning it out. Worthy of high praise and frequent recommendations – but trust us, if you let someone borrow this one, they’ll “forget” to return it. Don’t miss the next title by this author.

Piper Denna

Romance is sexy!

Now reading: Hot Wheels and High Heels by Jane Graves, on the Reader

Next week's review: What the Lady Wants by Jennifer Crusie

No Tubes Today

Friends, I am all vehklempt.

I got the nicest email this morning and the most fabulous review.

What a way to start the day!

http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookReviews/Fantasymountain.html

Piper
who still believes
Romance is sexy!
even on a teary-eyed Tuesday

Things That Suck More Than Mondays

Most sucky thing that's happened around here in days?

The cat.
Ate.
My laptop cord.
Again.

Tried to find some kind of pet deterrent spray stuff but nobody in town has any.
Anybody know of some type of smelly stuff cats hate, that we can rub all over our cords?

Happy Monday to all those using non-electrical-taped power cords on their computers.

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!