Meljean Brook

Because they don’t get any more accurate than this.

Yes … I think this captures the 1870s 80s perfectly.

I should stay off YouTube. This is Dusty Springfield, with a song that I’ve played WAY too much lately, thanks to Demon Night.

Okay, this isn’t Doris Day — but man, this is fantastic. And other people in this movie are definitely non-blondes.

I had no idea this was part of a movie soundtrack. Anyone have any idea what movie this is? (It’s Madonna’s Crazy For You)

Heh. I forgot Gwen Stefani used to wear a bindi.

And because I can’t leave out Cyndi. She’s not blond here, but she is non-blonde now. So it counts. (And, okay, it’s because I was watching so many Strictly Ballroom clips.)

Went to the Beaverton Borders for my first reader group — and it was awesome. I really wish I’d known about it before, but it wasn’t until Tammie at nightowlromance.com gave me a heads up that I found out about it. I met Marcy Dodge, who was RWA’s Bookseller of the Year a couple of years ago, who was fantastic, and who was very nice when I mumbled that I sent her an ARC of DEMON MOON on Friday, and that if she hated it, it was okay. I’m not quite over my “I’m sorry I’m sending you an ARC” guilt, but I’m getting there. I could have totally slunk out without mentioning it, but I didn’t.

I looked at a bunch of bookmarks that were better designed than mine, including Jennifer Estep’s KARMA GIRL. And I picked up a couple of books that I might not have otherwise (or even heard of otherwise), because they were part of the bookclub:

NO REGRETS
Shannon K. Butcher

Renowned cryptologist Noelle Blanche refuses to have blood on her hands. So when the military asks for her help in a covert operation, she refuses–until masked gunmen raid her home and threaten her life. Suddenly it’s all too clear that any blood spilled may be her own. Noelle has no choice but to trust the dangerous stranger sent by the military to safeguard her. A stranger who is everything she detests, everything she fears…and everything she desires.

Former Delta Force operative David Wolfe thought he had left it all behind–the horror, the hurt, the guilt. But now the men who savagely murdered his wife have set their sights on a brilliant cryptologist who can lead them to the cache of weapons they prize. As passion ignites between David and the woman he’s sworn to protect, what began as just a mission escalates into the fight of his life. But can he prevent history from repeating itself?

The general consensus was that it was good, although the spread of opinion on how good ran the gamut of “couldn’t put it down” to “it was okay” (and a few people were DNF). Which, I guess, is always how reviews go. *g* One comment was that it sounded like a man’s voice; I’m interested in seeing if I agree, or if I can even tell why that comment came up. I probably won’t get to this one right away, though. Instead, I’ll be making certain that I read the pick for next month:

KNIGHT’S PRIZE
Sarah McKerrigan

She certainly seems meek and soft-spoken, unlike her warrior sisters. But once the sun goes down, Miriel of Rivenloch becomes “The Shadow,” the bold, mysterious renegade who robs the rich to give to the poor. But can she outwit the devil-may-care mercenary Sir Rand la Nuit, who has been hired to unmask The Shadow? Miriel doesn’t know Rand’s mission-only that his sudden, amorous courtship is hiding something. Rand doesn’t know who The Shadow is-only that the lovely woman in his arms heats his blood. Touch by silky touch, kiss by sizzling kiss, the stakes-and their passions-mount. And once Rand and Miriel disrobe in his bedchamber, both can lose everything they live for-including their oh-so-vulnerable hearts.

And then for those of you who want historicals set outside of England, I saw a cover flat for SILK DREAMS, set in Constantinople ** and will be published in July:

SILK DREAMS
Diana Groe

In a strange land of flashing swords and swirling silks, spicy aromas and hot breezes that feel like a lover’s breath, Valdis is utterly lost. Constantinople is so vastly different from her homeland in Scandinavia. And the harem she’s forced to enter so very treacherous.

Her family cast her away for seeing portents of the future, and now her visions are turning even more ominous: They foretell the death of the one man who could help her escape, an exiled Viking who braves the wrath of a kingdom to awaken her passion one sinful pleasure at a time. To save him, Valdis must play a high-stakes game of power and seduction that will either get her killed or finally allow her and her love to live their…SILK DREAMS.

** Does anyone else have a hard time NOT singing, “Istanbul was Constantinople / now it’s Istanbul not Constantinople / Been a long time gone, Constantinople / Why did Constantinople get the works? / That’s nobody’s business but the Turk’s” when they hear the word “Constantinople”?

I can’t believe you put this song in the background of your commercials. (For those of you at work or whom the video doesn’t function, it’s Violent Femmes’ Blister in the Sun.)

Although “Where’s the Beef?” and “Big hands I know you’re the one” do — oddly enough — go together.

So, I’ve mentioned before that I make a music playlist for my WIP. A lot of the songs I originally had were country-slanted, but except for a few, that didn’t work out. The feel of the WIP has changed too much for me, but I couldn’t find the exact sound I was looking for … until the other day, when I was watching an X-Files rerun, and I thought about the David Duchovny song, and then I remembered: Bree Sharp!

Like most X-Philes, I bought the A Cheap and Evil Girl CD just for the David Duchovny song … but the whole CD was pretty damn good. She’s got kind of a scratchy voice, and her lyrics are smart, modern and cynical, but without being nihilistic. And a few of the songs are EXACTLY what I’m trying to capture for the WIP.

But I can’t find my CD. I’ve turned the house upside-down today looking for it, and I can’t find it. So I calm myself down, and think: okay, I’ll just buy it on iTunes.

Except it’s not available. *sob* Only a few tracks in a live concert version, and I really prefer the original studio recordings.

So I go to Amazon. They only have used copies (or a new copy for $75). I don’t know about you, but there’s something that just eeks me out about buying a used CD. I can buy used books, used clothes, whatever — but a used CD? Maybe it’s because I’m not all that careful with mine (obviously, since I’ve lost it) but I just don’t like the idea. I’m still looking for a new copy (Tower Records doesn’t have one, and even though I’ve searched the bittorrents, there’s nothing) … and I’m about to buy the used copy. Gah!

But at least the WIP will start sounding right.

LINK OF THE DAY: Here’s a bit of irony. At Bree Sharp’s Myspace site, she has a couple of her music videos from YouTube linked … and one has been removed for copyright violation.