Movie Monday: Whip It

I finally remembered to return my Netflix and three new movies magically appeared in my post office box the other day, including this one. And I have to say, I loved it!!!!!!!!!!!! Featuring Ellen page of Juno glory, Drew Barrymore (who also directed it) and Juliette Lewis, this movie rocked. It was great fun to watch and the fact that the story started out as a YA book and takes place here in my adopted hometown of Austin, TX, just made it sweeter.

The movie follows Babe Ruthless, as she goes from typical high school student in a tiny town-- whose mother forces her to compete in pageants that she hates to an overnight Roller Derby sensation. It's a great girl power movie, with underlying subplots that really hit on the fact that you have to like yorself before you can expect a guy to like you, that you have to stand up for yourself because no one else will, and that girl friendships are the best thing in the world.

I really enjoyed it-- particularly seeing one of my favorite actresses, Drew Barrymore, playing a character named Smashley who likes to do just that-- smash into other players and beat the hell out of them. If you're looking for a rollicking fun movie with a serious underside, this one is for you!

How about you-- anyone see Whip It? Or any other good chick flicks lately?

Fun Friday Winner!

The winner of last week's Fun Friday, and my Australian anthology, is Laney4!!!!! Drop me an e-mail at tracy@tracywolff.com and I'll get a copy in the mail to you.

And for everyone else-- get ready! On Valentine's Day, Shayla Black and I are kicking off the Delicious Tease Contest Extravanza to promote our new books: Delicious and Tease Me. There will be prizes every day from some of the biggest names in erotic romance, as well as some great up-and-comers in all different genres from romantic suspense to contemporary to paranormal. Plus, the grand prize is an i-pod Touch! So don't forget to look for the contest-- and the widget that should go up ASAP. Posting the widget somewhere else-- and sending a link back to us-- counts as an extra entry into the i-pod contest!

Fun Friday: Giveaway

I just got my Australian copies of From Friend to Father in the mail yesterday and thought it would be fun to give one away today :) In Australia, they publish two books together, so it comes with a Mills and Boon Superromance attached as well (one that's pretty good, actually. I'm in the middle of reading it).

So, to be entered to win a copy of my very groovy Australian anthology, drop me a comment about what your plans are for the weekend. Anything exciting going on or is everyone suffering the same miserable weather I am?

Everything Else Thursday: Influential YA Authors

A couple of hours ago, I read that J.D. Salinger had died and I confess, though I never met the man, I teared up. Though he only wrote a few books in his life, the ones he wrote helped meld the way that I think, the way that I write and the way that I teach. In fact, a semester doesn't go by when I don't talk about his work-- and about him to my students, even when I'm not teaching American Lit. To this day, my favorite anti-hero is his most famous character (Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye) and the American Lit. professor in me truly believes that The Catcher in the Rye is the greatest American novel ever written. I am so very sad to know that Salinger's brilliant mind and voice are gone from this world forever ...

Because I consider Salinger to be one of the most influential YA authors of all time, I find that writing about him as a segue into my next topic makes perfect sense. A couple of days ago a friend, knowing about my recent obsession with all things Young Adult, sent me this link to a blog that talks about the most influential YA authors of the last decade: http://www.omnivoracious.com/2010/01/the-ya-decade.html

There are some very familiar names on it (Stephenie Meyer of Twilight fame and Christopher Paolini of the Eragon trilogy, plus Meg Cabot of the Princess Diaries and many other things as well) but there are also some names on the list that surprised me a little.

Which made me realize how different everyone's perception is about the books they read-- and the authors they like. For me, an influential YA list of the last decade wouldn't be complete without Simone Elkeles or Melissa Marr, but neither of them made the long list, let alone the short one. Does that mean I discount this blogger's list-- of course not. It just brings home how many brilliant YA authors there are out there and how grateful I am to have a chance to be one in the next decade of the 21st century.

Anyway, for those of you who follow this blog, are any of you YA readers? Or do you have younger siblings or children who are? If so, what YA auhors do you/they like?

Wollf Wednesday

I'm blogging over at www.sizzlingpens.com today about my favorite TV shows. Stop by and tell me what shows you can't live without!

Book Tuesday

To be honest, I'm kind of blah today-- maybe it's because things are going so crazy in my own life (my roof is being replaced this week, my bedroom and faimly room are still topsy turvy from the broken water pipe/flood, I have stitches in my hand (don't ask) and my teaching duties started last week after a very long month off and I have two books due in the next two months. Either way, I haven't been able to get into anything I've tried to read this week. Nothing appeals and half the time, I can't even remember the chapter I just read.

So, I thought I'd ask you. What are you reading this week? Anything good?

Movie Monday: Sherlock Holmes

Okay, so it's deep, dark confession time. On my first date with the man who turned out to be my husband, I fell asleep. And not just a little doze, but full-on, drool on his shoulder, snuffle-snore asleep. I know, I know. It's a miracle he ever called me back.

In my defense, however, it was City Hall. It was the midnight movie. And I'd been up at 5 that morning writing a paper for my English Lit. class.

I bring this up now, because the same thing happened to me yesterday. My husband of 13 years took me to see Sherlock Holmes, a movie I've been very interested in seeing, and I fell asleep! Once again, in my defense, it was the 11 p.m. movie, I'd been up most of the previous night writing and I had spent the day running around the park after my kids.

Still, I can't believe I fell asleep on Sherlock Holmes! I will admit that the parts I saw were brilliantly funny-- Robert Downey Jr. is a wonderful actor (not like that's news to anyone) and he and Jude Law have an amazing on-screen chemistry. The two play off each other wonderfully!

Anyway, has anyone else seen this movie yet? Did you like it? Hate it? What was your favorite part-- I don't really have one, since I watched disjointed parts about every fifteen minutes or so ....

And the Untraceable winner is ...

Mariska! Drop me a note at tracy@tracywolff.com and I'll get that in the mail sometime this week!

Wolff Wednesday: I Need Help-- Again!!!!!!

So, the house is slowly getting taken care of--- just waiting on the insurance estimate/check now. But in the meantime, I need a new name. Again. I know, I know, I already have two names but with my new Young Adult sale (and can I just say yippee!!!!!!!!!! for the millionth time) I need a third name, as I don't think the YA and erotica genres go that well together-- at least not for the teenagers (imagine that ;)

Part of me wants to use my maiden name and just be done with it, but then another part thinks that another nom de plume would be kind of fun. My agent suggested Tabitha as a first name and I like that (sticking with Tracy and Tessa with the T's) but at the same time I'm open to non-T names too.

So, any suggestions for first and last names? I'd like to stay with the beginning part of the alphabet for my last name-- as Wolff, I'm buried on the last shelf of the last bookcase at B and N and Borders, which is not optimum place ment, as I'm sure you can imagine. Thanks in advance.

Book Tuesday: Untraceable

So today, I want to talk about a book that I've read recently that I just loved: Laura Griffin's Untraceable. An up-and-coming star in the world of romantic suspense, Laura is a phenomenal writer and a good friend of mine. I've been hooked on her book since her very first novel, One Last Breath, debuted a few years ago.

Untraceable is just as good-- if not better. The story of PI and battered woman advocate Alex Lovell and homicide cop Nathan Deveraux, Laura sets an expolosive pace at the beginning and keeps it up through the entire book.

When Alex discovers that a woman she has recently helped develop a new identity has gone missing, she is convinced that the woman is dead-- and enlists the help of Nathan. At first, Nathan is reluctant to help her-- one, because Alex refuses to follow the rules and two, because she's accusing a cop of being the murderer. As if that isn't explosive enough, Laura ups the ante-- and the action-- with everything from burning houses to elite forensic science. This is a book I loved and one I don't think you should miss.

And because Laura is such a great person, I have an autographed copy of Untraceable to give away. Leave a message on this post or on my Fun Friday giveaway post and you'll be entered to win. In the meantime, what Romantic Suspense authors do you like?

Tease Me ARC winner!

And the winner of the Golden Globes/Tease Me ARC contest is Jennifer! She had the most correct guesses of anyone who entered, so Jennifer, e-mail me at tracy@tracywolff.com and I'll get your prize out to you.

Movie Monday: My Sister's Keeper

I'm back-- the insurance guy was here today, looking at all the damage from the flood, so it looks like we are on our way to getting our master bedroom and family room back-- sometime in the next few weeks, hopefully.

For Movie Monday, I decided to write about this movie because I just watched it over the weekend. I read the book months and months ago and was completely disgusted with the ending. They changed the ending for the movie-- Hollywood knew there was no way the original ending could fly-- but I'm not sure I was any happier with how they ended it. Maybe there just was no good ending for this story.

For those of you who don't know the premise, Anna (who is now 11) was genetically engineered and conceived so that she could give her cord blood to her 4 year old sister, Kate, who had leukemia. But things didn't stop there-- she ended up with 8 hospitalizations in 11 years for bone marrow transplants, etc. Things come to a head when her mother expects her to donate a kidney to Kate and Anna doesn't want to do that. She gets a lawyer and sues her parents for medical emancipation.

It's a heartwrenching scenario (my husband cried as he watched the movie, then told me I never get to pick our Saturday night DVD again), especially as you understand that without the kidney, Kate will die. At the same time, though, there's tons of sympathy for Anna who has suffered through horrible, horrible things from the time she was two, just to be a donor to Kate. Picoult, of course, has some twists in the book, and the ending I so objected to was that as Anna wins medical emancipation, she is on her way to the hospital to see her sister, ends up in a car accident, is brain dead, and they harvest her kidneys anyway. It's like everything we felt in the entire book-- all the struggles that Anna goes through-- are negated in the end.

As I said, the movie ends differently (I won't ruin it for you) but I didn't find the new ending any more satisfactory. I've spent a couple days thinking how I would end it, and haven't been able to come up with an answer either, though, so maybe there really was no good ending for this story.

So, what do you think? Any of you see the movie? If not, is there any book turned into a movie that you really liked both versions of? For me, I really liked both the movie and film version of The Firm and Angels and Demons.

My last two days

I didn't mean to run away the last two days, but Sunday night at 10:30, my husband walked into the Master bedroom and sunk into inches of water-- with the cold weather, a pipe had busted in the outside wall and flooded my bedroom, bathroom and the edges of my family room (just enough to warp my wood, of course). Needless to say, I've been a little busy with restoration companies, plumbers, insurance agents, etc. these last couple of days.

Fun, right? Not so much, especially since hubby had to go out of town and left me stuck with a flooded house, no water and three kids. Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I'm not ignoring you on purpose and will be back to post again as soon as I have water!

And if you want to send some positive vibes my way, I would greatly appreciate it.

Fun Friday: I'm an Awards Show Junkie

So, I am a total Awards show junkie. I love them. I love everything about them. The dresses. The hot men. The show. The nominations and awards themselves. The Academy Awards is my all time favorite-- every man in my house knows better than to get in the middle of me and the TV that night. But the Globes are cool too, and in honor of the recent Golden Globe nominations, I've posted some of the big categories here. Tell me who you think is going to win/who you want to win and when the globes go in a couple of weeks, the one who guesses the most right will win an ARC for my March 2010 book, Tease Me (btw, I only have a few so I'm guarding them zealously!)

So, with no further ado, the envelope please (my choices are in italics):

Best Motion Picture -- Drama
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture -- Drama
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An EducationG
abourey Sadibe, Precious

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture -- Drama
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Tobey Maguire, Brothers

Best Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy
(500) Days of Summer
The Hangover
It's Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
Marion Cotillard, Nine
Meryl Streep, It's Complicated
Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia
Julia Roberts, Duplicity

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy
Matt Damon, The Informant
Daniel Day Lewis, Nine
Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes
Joseph Gordon Levitt, (500) Days of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man

Best Director -- Motion Picture
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds

So hit me with your best shot-- who are you rooting for?

Diary of a Wii Addict

Yes, it's true. I, who have never much had any interest in or time for video games, am totally addicted to my son's Wii. I mean like seriously addicted-- the thing is a time suck of major proportions. He's had it for a year now, and while I played with it when he first got it, I've pretty much left him alone with it for the last nine months or so, unless he asked me to play. Well that all changed over Christmas.

First, he got Guitar Hero and Rock Band for the thing and I looooooove to Jam with him-- he's totally cool in so much as he likes to play/listen to my music-- Green Day, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin. He draws the line at Madonna, but hey, a mom has to make some sacrifices ;)

Then, my husband got me Wii fit, which is so much fun! I love starting the day with Wii yoga.

Plus, when the kids get home from school, my middle one (after homeowrk) always challenges me to a bowling or tennis or baseball match-- which I usually lose.

Not to mention all the Summer and Winter Olympic sports games we have and, of course, my personal favorite: Dance Party! It's absolutely ridiculous how much I love to jump around on that stupid floor pad. Seriously. Ridiculous.

So how about you guys? Any Wii or Playstation or Xbox addicts out there? If so, what are your favorite games? And do you have any recommendations for kick-butt Wii games? I'm not so into the playstation (probably because I ALWAYS lose) but this Wii thing is way too much fun.

Wolff Wednesday: Glad to be Back!

Not much to report on the writing front, except to say that I finished revisions-- over Christmas-- for Beginning with Their Baby, my July 2010 Superromance, which is a follow-up to June's From Friend to Father. I think I deserve lots of gold stars for that, especially since I was visiting my mom and would much rather have hung out with her than sat at the computer working :(

Other than that, I'm just chilling out. We got back to Austin a few days ago and it took me a day to organize all the boys' Christmas presents and put them away (grandma spoils them rotten). My oldest's favorite present was a brand new i-pod, my middle loved his Star Wars figures and the three year old was thrilled with his huge Optimus Prime. My poor husband had to change that thing from a Truck to a Transformer I can't even tell you how many times. As for me, my favorite present was the pretty purple Coach Poppy purse my honey got me. I'm in love with it-- and it matches my purple sunglasses too. What more can a girl ask for?

How about you guys? I know I'm a little late in the asking, but what was your favorite present this holiday season, to give or get?