Before I talk about movies, I have an RSS feed! I finally emailed my web guy and he did it super fast. I don’t know what took me so long. You can find it on the left, below Sky’s description. Thanks to Natalie Hatch, I have all my regular blogs on Google Reader. I love it! So now I won’t comment 3 or 4 days after the blog’s been written, unless I’m super busy.

I’m busy now, but I took time last night to watch The Jane Austen Book Club. I really enjoyed it. Great actresses, women from young twenties to probably late 50’s. There were men too, including Jimmy Smits, but the focus was on the women’s stories. I was thinking of the movie when I woke up this morning, and it still leaves me feeling good. My husband said it’s a women’s movie, but he gave it a B. So he liked it too.

This morning I looked at the movies in the paper, and most are dominated by men. Iron Man, The Dark Force, Death Force, The Mummy, Tropic Thunder, Step Brothers. And on and on and on. There are a couple movies with women, Mama Mia!, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The House Bunny. I’m not counting Woody Allen’s Vicky Christina Barcelona, a male fantasy movie. (I didn’t want to include The House Bunny, but the scriptwriters were women, so I’m being fair. )

I know the reason behind the domination of men in movies is that the highest numbers of movie goers are between 18 to 24, and young women will go to shows about men but young men are less likely to go to shows about women. But maybe the reason they get more young men and their wives/girlfriends at the movies is because that’s who they cater to. I was planning to go to a show this weekend, but nothing appealed to me. (My husband and I’ve seen Mama Mia! already.) Instead we’ll find something else to do.

They lost me, and I’m sure there are other women who would go to the show — with or without their husband or boyfriend — but won’t go this weekend either.

What are your thoughts about this?

I’m co-organizing a workshop for Margie Lawson in Milwaukee with Liz Lincoln. I’m also revising my novella. This week has been especially busy for me, so instead of blogging, I’m going to post the workshop information. I’d love it if you could all come. Margie’s online classes and lecture packets are amazing, and I’ve heard she’s even more awesome in person.

Feel free to forward–and I hope you will.

MARGIE LAWSON WORKSHOP
EMPOWERING CHARACTERS’ EMOTIONS
NOVEMBER 1ST, 2008
8am-5pm
DOWNTOWN RAMADA MILWAUKEE

Want to add a psychological punch to your writing and editing?

Want to capture the full range of body language on the page?

Want to turn your work into a page-turner by powering up emotion and hooking the reader viscerally?

You’ll learn how to do all this and much more at Margie Lawson’s workshop on EMPOWERING CHARACTERS’ EMOTIONS. A counseling psychologist, Margie’s classes have a reputation for being amazing. Her online and in-person workshops are wildly popular.

Only 100 spots available, and they’ll fill up fast.

Registration deadline: October 1st, or when we reach 100.

The workshop is at the Ramada Milwaukee Downtown, 8am - 5pm, with continental breakfast, a lunch buffet and free parking. All this for only $55!

Rooms are available at the hotel on both Friday and Saturday nights. They are at a reduced rate of $69/night, both single and double rooms. To reserve a room, call the Ramada at (414) 272-8410, and tell them you are with the Wisconsin Romance Writers group.

You can find out more about Margie and her workshops at www.margielawson.com.

If you have any questions, email Edie Ramer at edieramer@gmail.com or Liz Lincoln at lizlincoln@gmail.com.

To register fill out the Registration Form, which you can find on the WisRWA website at www.wisrwa.org, and send to Edie.

Hope to see you all there!

I just wrote a blog about a villain problem and while writing about it, I worked out a way to make my character more real. With the problem solved, I won’t post it. I don’t like to share so much of my plot until the book is written. When I first started writing, I didn’t tell anyone the plot details. Writers are basically storytellers. My theory was we have a story inside us that we need to tell. Once we share the plotline and motivations, we’ve told the bones of the story. We’ve fed the need. In doing so, we’ve lost the motivation to bleed and sweat the story out, a process that takes most of us months.

Now I think this theory is wrong. I do share with my CPs. If you’re published, you share with your agent and editor. Though I used to write faster, I attribute my slower progress to more knowledge. Or more time spent on the internet when I should be writing.

But I’m sorry I wasn’t able to post the blog, because it was easy to write and I used two words I rarely use: nefarious and heinous. I used heinous in a recent blog, and was happy to use it again so soon. I often listen to Law & Order reruns while preparing dinner or cleaning up. The introduction on the SVU (Special Victims Unit) shows is the best:

“In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad, known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.”

When my husband is in the room, we always repeat “heinous.” We just like saying it.

And the intro is genius. It would be great in the beginning of a book. Not my book, because I don’t write those kind of books. For the most part, my books would have an intro that’s something like “In Southeastern Wisconsin, women with attitude find love and sex, and a few don’t even care that Brett Favre has been traded to the Jets.”

What would your intro say? And do you talk about your wip before it’s finished?

The RITA and GH winners will be posted here on Saturday evening, 8pm Pacific Time, as they’re announced. I’m rooting for several people, including Elizabeth Hoyt, Allison Brennan (who’s a double RITA nominee!), and Amy Atwell (a double GH nominee!). Amy has an, er, interesting speech planned. Someone offered her money if she actually said it. I hope she wins and she does.

LaDonna Paulette told me she practices her RITA speech as she drives along in her Jeep, visualizing the experience. I’ve never done that, but I would probably start with the usual: Thank my wonderful agent, my wonderful editor, MY FANTABULOUS CPs, my writing friends who kept me going. And then I’d say how long it took me. Some people are struck by lightning, other people have a slow crawl.

I’m still crawling, but some day I will be making my speech. One that I hope will inspire the struggling writers in the audience to keep on writing and submitting, knowing if I can make it, they can too.

That’s the way I felt listening to Debbie Macomber’s story. And Sherrilyn Kenyon’s story. Sherrilyn sold a pirate book that her CP and agent said would never sell. (Her agent actually quit on her over this book.) Here’s what she says on her website:

“…to those of you who are writing an unpopular time period or subject–that book that my agent and friend said would never sell is still in print eight years later and is in its eleventh printing.”

And I love this:

“So for all of you out there who want to write, never listen to anyone who says you can’t be what you want. Never give up your dreams. Believe me, I know it’s hard. But in the end, those dreams are what see us through the hard times. That and the laughter of friends and family. Hold your friends, family and dreams close to your heart and fight for them all.”

What will you say when you win your award?

I read amazing blogs by Erica Orloff and Natasha Fondren in which they open up their hearts and souls to the readers. Karin Tabke gets personal sometimes in hers, talking about her husband, daughters and sons. Liz Kreger talks about being a cancer winner.

I can’t open up my soul to others as easily. Most of my personal blogs could be interchangeable with my Magical Musings blogs. In fact, sometimes I’ll write a blog for one and put it on the other.

Some bloggers write motivational and instructional blogs. Other bloggers rant about the industry — and the world. Though there’s a lot of crappy stuff going on, I don’t want to rant about it. (But ask me privately what I feel about this administration and I’ll tell you. War crimes, anyone?)

I read somewhere that it’s good for a writer to open up, because people like to feel as if they know the writer. It’s a personal connection. The writer feels like a friend and we’re more likely to buy our friends’ books. Karin and Erica achieve this. I’m not selling books yet, but when I do, I don’t know whether I’ll be able to open up the way they do.

What are your favorite blogs? Bloggers who open up about their emotions and their lives? Or someone who gives helpful advice, or is funny, or is just a damn good writer? (Some bloggers are all of these and get personal too. )