TGIF

All right, I promised to talk about new career directions. I'm an eclectic reader, will read anything put in front of me (almost), and I also get a bit bored and fidgety as a writer. I have to try new stuff, new challenges, or I go crazy. So, this is what I have out there now. A sequel to LADY MIDNIGHT, titled (originally) LADY JADE, which tells the story of Julian, the hunky villain, and how he's redeemed by his love for Christina Lindley (the hero's scientist sister in LM). A weird, paranormal/fantasy, LORD OF THE RINGS-ish type thing called ACROSS A FIERY SEA, set in ancient Ireland, centered around four sisters with special powers (I love, love, love this story, and hope some brilliant editor out there takes a chance on it). A historical set in sixteenth century Venice, A KISS OF POISON, with an alchemist heroine, a pirate hero, and (you guessed it) a rash of poisonings in the city. These are all floating around out there now, my poor babies, to be judged harshly. I hope I raised them well.

Then there is the story I'm working on now. I was an English lit major (hard to believe, I know!). Just to be sure I was totally unfit for any job in the real world, I specialized in Elizabethan poetry. My parents were so happy their tuition dollars were being well-spent. Now I can tell them I'm actually using my degree, because the story stars the ghost of Sir Philip Sidney (courtier, poet, soldier, all-around studmuffin of the Elizabethan Court) as the hero. The heroine is an English lit professor (another woman using her degree wisely), who holds the key to releasing him from his ghostly curse. So--whaddya think???

Maybe my current obsession for sword-wielding hotties has not so much to do with my expensive and heretofore useless degree, but with the fact that I have now seen the film KINGDOM OF HEAVEN twice. I'll admit it right up front--I have a terrible teenybopper crush on Orlando Bloom. Pics of him taped to my computer, all that sort of stuff. I would happily sit and watch him read the phone book on screen for two hours. The fact that he usually appears in costume epics (my fave!) is just gravy. He is particularly hunkalicious in this movie, though he doesn't take his shirt off nearly often enough, IMO. I never was much of a "alpha male" girl, though I make an exception for Clive Owen. I much prefer lanky, soulful Brits like my darling Orlando, Jude Law, Jonathon Rhys-Myers, and that guy from Sliding Doors (the funny one who always quotes Monty Python, not the sleazebag--what can I say? I'm a sucker for a good Python quote). But a lanky, soulful Brit who can also go literally medieval on someone with a broadsword? Sign me up, baby!

Anyway, if you haven't see KOH yet, go go go! The line is bound to be shorter than for Revenge of the Sith, and the dialogue way better (though Hayden Christensen appears to have much to recommend him now). I have to go to the Oklahoma Festival of the Book tomorrow, or I would probably go for a third time myself. More about the Festival (and musings on cute movie stars) later . . .