Monday, October 19, 2009

Castle

Congratulations to Cheryl Casting! You are the winner of The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie by Jennifer Ashley. I’ll be sending you an e-mail for your snail mail address.

This time I’m going to give away Annie Solomon’s Dead Ringer. A wonderfully suspenseful read, ladies! To be eligible for the drawing, you must type in your email address. I’ll also add you to my newsletter for updates on all the fun stuff and releases, too. I’ll announce the winner on my next blog!

Have you been watching the TV show Castle with Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic? I don’t watch a lot of network TV. The commercials, we don’t have a TiVo or the like so I have to watch or remember to tape, etc, etc. And yeah, sometimes the shows are just crap. If they aren’t crap, hubby and I prefer to watch them when they come out on DVD (Yay, Netflix!). Even The Office, which we love, yup, we wait a whole year to get the DVD (okay, okay, I watched the wedding episode, but that was it). Of course, with The Office, they have all the deleted scenes on the DVD, and those deleted scenes have a LOT of stuff that really explains the show, too. But I digress, I was supposed to be talking about Castle. I love Nathan Fillion. First saw him as the evil (hot and sexy) Caleb in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, then oohlala, he was Mal in Firefly (how could they cancel that show after only 13 episodes, they’re insane!). I even loved him in that silly movie Slither. So I thought I’d give Castle a try, even though honestly, I thought the commercials looked stupid, but whatever. Castle is a best-selling mystery writer who gets permission to shadow a female cop so his mysteries can have authenticity. I think in the first episode, some of the murders are like murders that occur in his books. Then he ends up working with her on all her cases. I started watching last season. Now I’m hooked! I love this show! I stay up late on Monday nights to watch it (or I actually remember to set the recorder). It’s funny, witty, sexy. Yeah, some of the cop stuff doesn’t ring true, but for the most part, they do a good job with that. But I’m not a stickler anyway if the show is enjoyable. The mysteries are interesting, and most of the time, I can’t figure out who the bad guy is until the characters do because there are so many twists and turns. There’s great chemistry between Fillion and Katic (the cop). It’s a fun role reversal that the woman is the tough cop and the guy is more flighty. The show is funny. And even the semi-sappy stuff with Castle’s daughter is actually very good. He’s the child and she’s the parent. Part of the reason I enjoy the show is how he thinks like a writer when helping to solve the cases. It rings true to how a writer’s mind works. Like when there’s a really unique way that someone’s been murdered, Castle says, “cool.” Just like I would! I would like to see more of the poker games with his writer buddies like Michael Connelly, Sue Grafton, etc. They don’t have a poker game in every show, but I always enjoy them when they do. Just my opinion, I don’t think this is a real guy show. It’s more a girlie show. My husband doesn’t watch it with me.

If you’ve seen the show, what do you think? If you’ve got a hubby or a boyfriend, do you think they’d like it?
Oh and some blatant promotion since this is my blog, Yours for the Night, RT Top Pick, will be out on Nov 3!

Jasmine, Jennifer and JB!

Monday, October 5, 2009

Weddings, Part 2!

Congratulations to Rosemary! You are the winner of Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong. I don’t have to e-mail you for your address because I already know it!

This time I’m going to give away The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie by Jennifer Ashley. Ladies, this is one great book! I loved it! I picked up the book because my readers group at my local Borders highly recommended it, and boy, they were right! To be eligible for the drawing, you must type in your email address. I’ll also add you to my newsletter for updates on all the fun stuff and releases, too. I’ll announce the winner on my next blog!

So I’m doing “Weddings, Part 2” because my friend Judy, whose photo was in the last blog, found an old picture of her wedding party and scanned it for me! Wow! I won’t tell you how long ago it was. Because boy, then you’d know how really old I am! But I thought it would be a fun follow-up to the last blog. As bridesmaids, we made our own dresses. From left to right, that's Madeline, Nancy, Judy, me, and Margaret.

Just a few things to tell you. First, there’s an excerpt for Yours for the Night up on the website, http://www.jasminehaynes.com/. I hope you’ll check it out. Romantic Times gave it 4 ½ star review and chose it as a Top Pick for November. Second, I’ve got a new two-book contract with Berkley. You’ll be seeing a third “Courtesans Tales.” So that’s Yours for the Night next month, Hers for the Evening in May 2010, and Mine until Morning towards the end of 2010. I’ve really enjoyed writing the stories about my courtesans and creating that glitzy, high-powered world they travel in. I'm still working on the idea for the second book in this new contract. More on that later!

If you read the excerpt, I hope you’ll let me know what you think!

Jasmine, Jennifer and JB!
 

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