PARTING THOUGHTS

Paris, November 2012

About two years and 231 posts ago I started this blog with the intention of posting about books, movies, writing and travel. A few months later, Pat O'Dea Rosen agreed to join me and since then has enhanced my modest endeavor with her wit and insight, and in the process has become a dear friend.

As happens, my life took an unexpected turn last summer--a good turn, but one that added a great deal of complexity to my world. I've had to make some hard choices and one of those was to bow out of the blog. Pat will carry on and I'll certainly stop by and say hi. This, however, will be my last post so I thought I'd go back to the beginning and talk about my favorite subjects.

Three books stood out for me in 2012--two were part of Amanda Stevens' Graveyard Queen series. I loved 2011's THE RESTORER and was thrilled the next two, THE KINGDOM and THE PROPHET, were released this year. Amanda is a master of the Southern Gothic genre who never disappoints. I'm eager to read her new YA series.

The third book has been at the top of the New York Times Hardcover list and for good reason. Gillian Flynn's GONE GIRL had me on the edge of my seat with all its twists and turns and the ending totally blew me away. This book proved to me that conventional wisdom--characters need to be likable in this case--can be reinterpreted with great success.

Of all the movies I saw this year, my favorites were THE AVENGERS  and SKYFALL. Both were action flicks but of a very different tone and nature. Superhero flicks haven't always appealed to me, but who could resist Robert Downey Jr as Ironman and Chris Hemsworth as Thor? And both in the same movie? Yes!! RDJ was the glue that held the cast together and CH was just hot and cool. If there's an AVENGERS 2, I'm totally on board.

I was never a Bond fan until the Daniel Craig era. As much as I've liked Sean Connery in other movies, I just never got Bond. The pretenders, we ignore. DC's dark, tortured Bond has hooked me with his all too human  flaws. In SKYFALL we're taken on a wild action ride that also addresses the demons within Bond, M and the deliciously evil villain. It's still in the theatre. Go. Now.

Carving out time for writing this fall was a challenge but I had the chance to see James Scott Bell at the Northwest Houston RWA's Lone Star Conference in October. I highly recommend his workshop for anyone who struggles with story structure like I do. He uses movie structure to illustrate how to write a novel that will grab and hold the reader. An added bonus--this structure is also very helpful in writing the dreaded synopsis.

Last year my rambling took me to Paris over Thanksgiving. Although my husband and I have been to the City of Lights together many times, this was one of the best of our visits. For anyone planning to spend more than a couple of nights there, I want to give you a piece of advice I wish I'd had years ago: rent an apartment in a part of the city close to things that interest you and become Parisian for a short while. There are many websites with offerings from modest to luxurious and some now take credit cards. These places are generally comparable in price to a decent hotel room and you'll have a kitchen enjoy some meals in and a sitting room to rest and recoup after a day sightseeing.

That wraps up my final thoughts but I'd love to hear from everyone about the highlights of your 2012...or just say good-bye. All my best wishes to everyone for a wonderful 2013!

Over cocktails.....

Swarovski Crystal Tree at Galleries Lafayette, Paris 

Year end is a great time for pop culture nerds--those of us who wish we were much cooler and plugged in than we are. There are all kinds of lists telling us which books, movies, trends are the most intellectual, hip, cutting edge and that intel is great material for holiday cocktail parties and family gatherings. Throw out a little knowledge of Golden Globe nominations and you're in for at least five minutes of awesome conversation.

Let's face it, our culture is fascinated by the rich and famous (or infamous) and we're drawn to stories about William and Kate, Brad and Angelina, and even Kim and Kanye. We don't have to admire them or even  like them to be sucked into the hype of their latest outfits, outings or personal disasters. Outrageous and shallow require no commitment and are amusing. These people are rich, famous, have lots of freedom and often make REALLY bad choices. Who can resist a smug moment of WTF over a silly photo of Madonna and her latest 22 year old boy-toy making out in a New York nightclub. On that note, I've considered topics I do and don't want to discuss over eggnog. Indulge me while I share.

Let's not talk about:

Who is going to be cast as Christian Grey? I don't care unless Chris Hemsworth takes the role. That would be a travesty of epic proportions almost as disgusting as.....

Tom Cruise playing Jack Reacher. This is just wrong. Cruise is rich and creepy and 5'7". Reacher is cool and hot and 6'5". Do the math. This casting just wrong on every level.

Anything Kardashian. Do we really need another magazine cover with Kim overflowing a lycra ensemble? Do we care what Kris Jenner wore for Halloween?

Kristen Stewart cheating on Robert Pattinson or him taking her back. They aren't really Bella and Edward, girls. Really.

Count me in:

New movies. This is the time of year we actually go to the theatre to see new releases. I want to see LES MISERABLES (LOVED the book, wasn't impressed with the play but Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean--YES!), SKYFALL and maybe LINCOLN but want feedback on what's out.

Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones in HOPE SPRINGS. This isn't usually my sort of film (no action, no violence, no Jason Statham, Chris Hemsworth or Channing Tatum) and yet this story of a middle-aged woman who wants to resurrect a dead marriage was very well done. Only Meryl Streep would allow herself to look so frumpy on screen--and she has another Golden Globe nomination for her performance. Tommy Lee Jones was also excellent.

Winter fashions, spring lines, anything Tom Ford does. Stylish clothes fascinate me--when the topic turns to trends, designers, fabrics, sales I'm all in.

Books! Romances, suspense, thrillers, cookbooks, biographies--what's everyone reading these days? Give us the low down!

So what do you want to talk about? What subjects would you prefer to avoid?

PARISIEN FOR 10 DAYS

Our View

 Over Thanksgiving, my husband and I took a much needed escape to Paris. We've been many times before and done all the tourist sites and colorful neighborhoods. This was our chance to chill out in a wonderful apartment on the Rive Gauche and be Parisien  for ten days.

Our apartment was perfect--very French with a view of Notre Dame out the kitchen window and six restaurants within fifty yards of the apartment. We could walk wherever we wanted to go, eat out or cook in, sleep late or get up early, and enjoy our favorite neighborhoods and destinations with no pressure to see or do anything because we "should." It was a wonderfully relaxing, energizing break during which I made some observations, none very profound.

Romance-Free Bookstore

• There are no romance novels in Shakespeare & Company. There are thousands of English language books on almost every subject. Harlan Cobin, John Grisham and Lee Child made the cut. Nora didn't.                                                                                       
• Hot water heaters run at night. It's a good idea to get a shower before noon if you want hot water.

Steve in our living room

• It's generally a Bad Hair City. That doesn't mean my hair was impossible like it is in Houston in summer. Very few people in Paris put much effort into their coifs so the bar is pretty low. This is good news because:
• The electricity goes out frequently for short periods which requires the resetting of lots of critical systems including the hot water heater timer and the internet connection. These periods inevitable coincided with me getting in the shower.

Our Apartment Over Atelier Maitre Albert Restaurant

• The goofy, overzealous American tourists that embarrass us in restaurants and cafes are usually treated with kindness and good humor by the wait staff. Sure, this is because they generally tip very well in a country where tipping is seldom more that a euro or so. Still, the Americans are welcomed where other Europeans and Asians (both poor or non-tippers we were told) are merely tolerated.
• Trucks pick up glass bottles for recycling several times a week at about 6:30 a.m. Restaurants recycle A LOT of bottles. We were above one restaurant and across a narrow alley from three others. The crash of breaking glass is rather startling, especially that first morning. Other trash is picked up a couple times a week.  Luckily we live on a noisy street in Houston and were able to go right back to sleep.
• The neighborhood shopkeepers smile a lot and try to be helpful. Buying from the boucherie, poissonerie, chartucherie, bonlangerie, and wine merchant is much more fun than going to a grocery store. But beware the fromagerie...those women can be mean!

 

DEYROLLE 2012

Director Wes Anderson at Deyrolle before the fire

On a cold and rainy January day seven years ago, my husband and I were wandering around Paris when a curious little garden shop caught our attention. Inside we found an assortment of tools, books and clothes but nothing remarkable enough to carry home to Texas.

As we were about to leave, the clerk told us there was a premier étage and pointed to a stairway at the back of the shop. Not wanting to be rude, we climbed the steps expecting more of the same and were stunned by what we found—a grand suite of rooms full of hundreds of stuffed animals posed as though they had frozen in mid-action when our feet hit the top stair. Like many before us, we had discovered Deyrolle, the cabinet de curiosités.

Under normal circumstances, I might have found all the taxidermy somewhat appalling, but there was something so charming and playful about the way the animals were arranged, I fell in love with the place and every creature in the extraordinary menagerie. I couldn’t help thinking, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if whoever owns this place could bring these animals to life when no one was around?”

That man became Adrien Durand, the hero of the paranormal romance novel my agent has out on submission. Since then I’ve returned to Deyrolle many times, and have taken friends and family to visit my favorite place in Paris. Sadly about three years ago a fire destroyed most of the second story and with it hundreds of animals lovingly collected over more than a century.

The fictional place I call La Maison d’Ermonie has taken on a life of its own in my imagination—a fantastical world that is more real to me than the place that inspired it. I shouldn’t have been surprised this week when the somewhat reconstructed Deyrolle no longer held the enchantment of the original, but I was. Surprised and disappointed. The animals were no longer posed playfully and the whimsy has been lost. Change is inevitable but I still mourn the loss of a grand dining room set for dinner with a guest list of zebras, a donkey, a lion, a water buffalo and a goat presided over be a magnificent stuffed horse I named Maurice.

Have you ever revisited an old haunt or a literary shrine only to find time had stolen its magic? 

RAMBLING: PARIS IN WINTER

I’ve been to Paris in every month of the year. June and July are prime tourist months--in August Parisians leave, things close and the least savvy tourists show up—but I avoid the City if Lights in summer, along with the crowds and heat (air-conditioning is still a novelty there). Spring and fall are lovely times to wander the streets and visit the famous, infamous and countless free sights. Still, there’s something about being there in the winter that makes me feel like a Parisian.

We always rent a flat in a residential section of the 6^th or 7^th arrondissement because the scale of the streets and buildings of this old part of the city are so much more intimate than the grand boulevards across the Seine. I love to shop in the food hall of Le Bon Marche to stock our kitchen and run out for a baguette or pain aux raisins each morning as the neighbors do. When tourists are scarce, everyone treats you like you belong there. The pace is slower and the shopkeepers friendlier.

As for the city’s famous tourist sites, without the hoards--busload after busload of foreigners descend on these places for morning to night in other months—one can wander alone through galleries in the Louvre, tour sections of Versailles the general public never sees, and walk the deserted Luxembourg Gardens in the magical winter sunshine.

Except for one cold snap many years ago, the winter temperatures are not usually harsh—more Washington D.C. than Boston. And the country-wide mid-January sales are an extravagant experience I’m glad I’ve done once. But sitting in front of a blazing fire sipping a warm cognac, being a part of French city life if only for a short time—that’s why I love Paris in the winter.

Do you have a favorite winter travel destination? What is it and why do you love it?

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS - AN ENCHANTING FILM FROM WOODY ALLEN

Woody Allen’s MIDNIGHT IN PARIS won’t appeal to everyone, but to a writer, literature major and someone who adores Paris the film was nothing short of enchanting.

Gil (Owen Wilson) is a successful Hollywood screen writer with literary dream who has just finished his first novel. He’s in Paris with his fiancé and her parents—all of whom think he should forget the foolishness and go back to writing what makes him a lot of money. While they stick to the chic tourist spots, Gil wanders the city at night imagining what it would be like to live there in the 1920’s when it was the center of the ex-pat literary scene. As he sits on the steps of Montmartre at midnight, an elegant old Peugeot pulls up and Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald invite him to a party where his literary and artistic heroes accept him as one of their own. From then on he lives in the present during the day and travels back to the 20’s at night.

The magic of this movie comes to a large degree from Owen Wilson’s ability to play Gil with innocent wonder and enthusiasm that charm his new friends and the audience. I loved that Gil’s dream of writing a great novel is encouraged by the likes of Hemingway and Fitzgerald while being dismissed by his future family as frivolous. (Isn’t that scenario is all too familiar to a lot of writers?) When Gertrude Stein offers to critique his novel, I nearly cried.

The shots of Paris are gorgeous and the city is as much a character as the actors. If you didn’t pay attention in high school English and have no interest in art, many of the luminaries will be unfamiliar and much of the humor will fall flat. But for me, the film was a delightful surprise and well worth seeing again.

So a question for you writers among us--if you could meet and/or get your manuscript critiqued by a famous writer (living or dead), who would it be?