May 20, 2008 | Life in General

Dear Chester Bennington,

I would first like to start off by saying…

LINKIN PARK TOTALLY ROCKS!

I don’t claim to be your biggest fan, but I have all the bands’ CDs and you’ve held the number one music spot for me for years. I think I even saw you locally ages ago when you were fronting the band Grey Daze. I don’t remember who I was there to see, but I remember you being a little pissed because the acoustics were so bad at The Mason Jar. Does that sound familiar to you?

Anywho, I think it’s really great that you jumped on the Rockstar slash Clothing Designer bus and created your own clothing line, Ve’cel Clothing. I just have a couple of suggestions:

1) Do something for the ladies. Don’t get me wrong, the designs are wicked cool, but the shirts are too manly. Can you throw in some baby doll T-shirts, tank tops, or hey, even some cute dresses? If you’re starting out with the manly T-shirts just to see if the line will do well, that’s understandable. But I hope you’ll eventually decide to branch out.

2) Think Target. Or even Kohl’s. I understand that you wanna start our high end by having Nordstroms carry your shirts, but here’s the thing: not all of your fans shop at Nordies. I happen to be one of those people. I love you guys, really I do. As long as you continue to make music, I’m going to keep buying it. HOWEVER, I don’t love you guys enough to pay $50 or more for a T-shirt. You’d be lucky to get $40 out of me, truth be told. So I was thinking, for the fans that couldn’t give a shit about fashion, how about approaching more, uh, affordable stores like Target or Kohl’s? I mean, Nordies can’t be the end all, be all, right?

Keep in mind, these are just suggestions. Creative criticisms, if you will. You can take them under advisement and do with them what you will. Just remember: we’re your fans. We helped you rise to the top, and we can pull you back down. Just sayin’.

Sincerely,
Celise.

Technorati Tags: Chester Bennington, LINKIN PARK, Grey Daze, The Mason Jar, Nordstroms, Target, Kohl’s

May 19, 2008 | Family Portrait, Life in General, Random Thought, The 4-1-1 on Me

I ate lunch at Village Inn on Friday and they played our wedding song, “I Only Have Eyes for You” by The Flamingos.

This restaurant’s piped in music is oldies, which I think is pretty cool. When I heard it, it made me smile.

Luv ya, babe.

Technorati Tags: I Only Have Eyes for You, The Flamingos

May 19, 2008 | Book One, Book Stuff, DA Series, Draven Atreides, Life in General, Movie Queue, The 4-1-1 on Me, Writing Movements

Saturday morning, I had a business breakfast with my BF (she also happens to be my business partner as well). We’re trying to come up with ideas for the book release party next year. She’s a great marketing person because she makes me think. What’s the purpose? Who’s your target audience? What’s the draw? Why are these teens going to come and see you? Basically, I have to get out there more. She’s been telling me this forever and I keep saying, “Yeah, I know.” In my rose-colored world, I would just write the books and have someone else promote them. Radio interview? Let me know what time. Book signing? Tell me where to go. Simple. Talk in front of an auditorium full of people? Ahem. Yeah. Uh. I’ll get back to you on that.

But it’s not that simple. Unfortunately.

I’ve got some research to do but she came up with great ideas, though.

After breakfast, we parted ways and I went to see Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

If you’ve seen the trailers for this then you know they’ve been saying “it’s better than the first.” Rarely are sequels better than the first, but for once I have to agree with the critics. It’s been only a year for Lucy, Susan, Edmund and Peter, but it’s been 1300 for Narnia. A lot has changed since the first movie. The children have grown up—literally and figuratively—and Narnia is now in the tight-fisted clutches of an evil ruler, Miraz. The young Prince Caspian is next in line to rule…until his uncle’s wife bears a son. Caspian is forced to flee to the forest, but not before his tutor gives him a special horn, who instructs him to use it only when he’s in “dire straits”.

It seems like these children are always fighting for something—mostly Narnia, sometimes Aslan—and it’s not the rinky-dink bike-racks-at-3pm kind of fights, either. They’re serious battles. These children are leading armies and fighting armies, wielding swords and slinging arrows (except Lucy, of course) like they were born to it. Peter shows major balls by challenging Miraz to a fight to the death. To the death, people. This is a boy of 15? 16? fighting a full-grown man, in full armor, with sword, to the death. How brave is that? In the first movie, they ruled Narnia for a while. We saw them become adults…until they found the wardrobe again and became children. Again. When Prince Caspian realized who he summoned when he blew the horn, he said “I thought you’d be…older.” I couldn’t help but think the same thing. I don’t understand they didn’t become older when they arrived in Narnia.

Besides the whole Davy and Goliath analogy going on this movie, I liked the message they were sending out even more: kids can change the world. They’re braver and stronger than people realize and if they want it bad enough, they can be the change they want to see in the world. When I was younger, and I was reading this series, it was pure entertainment for me. Seeing the movie adaptation of the books is still pure entertainment for me.

From a writer’s perspective, I’m more aware now of underlying themes, but I’m reminded yet again why I love to write: pure entertainment. And if you pick up anything else along the way, that’s cool, too.

(more…)

Technorati Tags: Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

May 19, 2008 | Book One, DA Series, Draven Atreides, Life in General, Miss Snitch Mondays

“Yes. We found him. It wasn’t too hard. How did you know about him?”

Olivia’s leg stopped abruptly mid-swing. “I watch a lot of T.V. So? What did he say?”

“He agreed to our conditions,” the woman confirmed.

“What about your people?”

“You helped us out a great deal and your demands were quite reasonable, considering.” The woman paused, removed her sunglasses and turned to gaze directly at Olivia for the first time. “Your request has been granted. In return for your cooperation, you are now under the protection of the FBI.”

Olivia sagged limply against the bench, releasing the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding in until she felt the dizziness. She could feel the tightness gathering in her chest, her throat clogging with tears waiting to be shed. Tears of relief. Tears of happiness. Free. She was going to be free. She was going to be free…

“Um, how long…” she stopped at the strangled sound of her voice. She gave her head a shake, adjusted her over-sized sunglasses, cleared her throat and tried again.

“When will you be doing your…” Olivia flapped a hand in the air, “thing?”

“It’ll be a few days. We’ll need to get a team together,” the woman explained.

Olivia nodded, unable to say anything. She was going to be free in a few days. Free to start her life over. Free to slip through the cracks. Her breath escaping in steamy wisps from her mouth, she opened her backpack and pulled out a large envelope.

“Well, then you’ll be needing this,” she said, sliding it across until it sat in the middle of the bench.

The woman reached out and quickly snatched it up, handing it over to her partner, who tucked it into his leather bomber jacket. They stood up together, the man making a sweep of their surroundings.

“Thank you,” the woman said in a warm tone. “You’re doing a good thing, you know. You won’t regret it.”

“I know I won’t,” Olivia replied softly.

The woman took an awkward step closer, but still kept her distance. “Do you need anything?”

Olivia turned her head and gave the woman a wobbly smile.

“I’ll be getting what I want in a few days,” she answered.

The woman nodded and strode away with her partner.

Olivia didn’t know how long she sat there staring at the ducks, the laughing children. From her spot on the bench, she could see The Dairy, the Victorian Gothic building which housed the Visitor’s Center; the Central Park Zoo with it’s oasis of wildlife; the Wollman Skating Rink where one can skate from October to April; and Heckscher Playground. Oh, how she would miss this place. Exploring the whole of Central Park would be the only good memories of her time with this couple. After this, she would be on her own.

TO BE CONTINUED…

REMINDER:

~ You are reading a raw, unedited version of A Royale Pain: A Draven Atreides, Teenage FBI Novel (Book One). This is pre-professional edit, pre-spell check. Expect to see grammar mistakes and misspellings.

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May 16, 2008 | Life in General

CLICK ON ALL THE PICS FOR A BIGGER VIEW.

I met Michael in summer school, the summer before our senior year in high school.

Mr. Drama Queen

I was retaking Algebra (hurling sound inserted here) and he was taking something else, I don’t remember.

I don’t remember how were “officially” introduced but when all was said and done, he ended up calling me Sophie. He couldn’t remember my name, but he remembered—for some odd reason—that my glasses frames were Sophia Loren. And so, to him, I became known as Sophie. During that summer, we were inseparable. And I don’t mean inseparable like we couldn’t breathe without each other, but more like a Joey Potter/Dawson Leery kind of thing (before they got romantic, that is).

Me and Mike, bff

One summer day, we were so bored that we decided to put on some music and lip sync to it. It then escalated into a dance show. We were the hosts, Downtown Sophie Brown and Pepe Carrington and we decided to call the show ‘Dance Jam Productions.’

We hung out so much that both sets of parents thought we were dating. Our parents had never met, but mine thought he was a hoot and I got along pretty well with his mother (his father was a bit shy? Standoffish? Can’t come up with the right word). And for the longest time, his parents thought my name really was Sophie. He lived, like, three minutes from me and we rode to and from school together. He had the most fabulous sense of humor, he always had me laughing, and he wanted to be an actor. We had lunch together in the Drama building and his thespian friends and my two best friends (Angie and Nancy) eventually just melded into one big group. We even shared a class together: English. My favorite subject ever. He sat in front of me.

I used to call that his Quarterback Wink (l-r: Angie, Mike, Nancy)

When we had spelling tests, he would come over to my house to study and we’d practice putting the words into sentences. I remember one of the words was “prodigious.” LOL. You can imagine how he used that word in a sentence. Of course, when I came across it the next day during class, and chuckled, he knew.

Halfway through the school year, we were hanging out one night at his house. Just me and him.

“Soph, I have to tell you something. I’m gay,” he said… (more…)

Technorati Tags: Sophia Loren, Dance Jam Productions