Xtina Goes WildYou know how it is — your husband leaves, you’re alone in the house for six whole days, and you go wild. You do all the things you want to do but can’t because he wants stuff like, oh, food on some weird schedule (three times a day? who made up that rule?), sleep on some weird schedule (what’s wrong with staying up until three in the morning?) and conversation when you’re sobbing, for the forty-seventh time, over Beth dying ("But haven’t you read that book before?") So for Mother’s Day this year, I got the best present of all — the house to myself. (Or almost to myself — the dogs are here.) Before Scott left, I performed the ritual I always perform — I got a new cookbook, picked out some recipes, and went wild! (Did you think I was going to flash my boobies?) And this time I picked a real winner. It’s called THE BEST LIGHT RECIPES from the Editors of COOK’S ILLUSTRATED. In case you don’t know about these guys, they test every recipe extensively until they come up with the best one. Not only that, they tell you the perambulations they go through to get to the recipe (that can be interesting or boring depending on how food-fixated you are.) They tell you what brands to use, what pieces of meat to use, how to prepare the food. In THE BEST LIGHT RECIPES, they tell you the perambulations they take to remove calories and still make the food taste good. What they don’t do is good, appetizing photos of the dishes. The recipes are printed on plain white paper and occasionally they slap in a bunch of photos. But that’s a minor caveat, because THE BEST LIGHT RECIPES are truly the best light recipes! I made their Chinese Chicken Salad. It was so good (and plentiful) that when I got done with the chicken breast that topped it, I cooked another chicken breast and ate half of it with more of the salad. And did I feel guilty? Not at all. Calories for a single serving was 250. With my splurge, I probably got it up to what? 400 calories. Horrors! I’ve tried one of their pasta salads (OMG), the Greek-Style Chickpea Salad (OMG), their Mac and Cheese and their Chicken Tortilla Soup (OMG.) I haven’t done their desserts, but here’s the situation — they say if they can’t make a recipe light and still have it taste good, they don’t put it in the cookbook. So far, I’ve found no reason not to believe them. Posted: 11/05/2007
Christina Rips Her BodiceI confess, I’m not someone who gets offended by people who trash romance. I figure that person a) has never read one and b) is stupid. This saves me the heartburn that other romance writers and readers suffer when someone holds up a favorite novel and reads the sex scenes out loud. I promise that laughing at their reading choices ("Yes, People is a more scintillating read than WARPRIZE!") or their non-reading choices ("How about them Yankees?") is more fun. But even as the press has slowly gotten more respect for romance novels (the press really respects money and romances make a lot of money) they’ve been unable to tear themselves away from their favorite term — BODICE RIPPER. Why has the term "bodice ripper" managed to survive for more than twenty years so successfully? Well, think about it. "Romance novel" is boring. "Bodice-ripper" is a visual, action term. So here’s your assignment. Think up another term for "romance novel", one that won’t offend so many readers (you’re always going to offend someone, so don’t try to please everybody), one that’s funny, descriptive, visual and makes the press want to use it. Then we’ll take it and spread it across the Internet, it will catch on and change the world as we know it!!! Bwahahahaha! ::cough:: Sorry, I lost my head for a minute. Anyway, remember — romance novel = funny, descriptive, visual term. Go for it! Posted: 11/19/2007
Christina Goes on BooktourBefore I was published, I thought going on a booktour would be glamorous, a time filled with fine hotels, fine food and adoring fans. AHAHAHAHA! Booktour is grueling, funny, wonderful, surprising, embarrassing and exhausting, often all at the same time. The booktour for THE BAREFOOT PRINCESS started when the Scranton PA Cultural Center asked for a romance writer to speak for Valentine’s Day. My publicist at Avon called and asked if I was interested, and I shrieked, "Yes! I can go to Philly afterward and see my daughter!" You’ll note at no point did I say, "Yes! Because booktour is glamorous and filled with fine hotels, fine food and adoring fans." I have been on booktour before. The tour started in Buffalo with the Worst Hotel in the History of the World (some of you may recall my bitter blog about the banana a la armpit) and a fabulous booksigning at the Waldens in the downtown mall. Not bad — no fine hotel, no fine food, but by golly, some adoring fans! Then off to Scranton. (Not a good hotel, almost starved trying to get a meal, but no bananas.) The Scranton Cultural Center is one of the most glorious pieces of architecture I’ve ever seen, and when they showed me the auditorium where I would speak, I burst into laughter. And took a photo to show you. Can you see how big this place is? It must seat two thousand people! I, um, didn’t fill it up. But I gave a great speech (she said modestly) and sold books, notably to Irene M’s sister. The next day I had two autographings and a tour of the HarperCollins book distribution center. Yes, I know, you’re thinking, "That doesn’t sound glamorous." Wrong! It was fascinating! And flattering! And breathtaking! I got there and — look at my banner! I’ve never had a banner before! And they had a cake! With my cover on it! And they had a huge poster they had me sign! They’re going to have it framed and hang it up with the other authors in the hallway. Then I got a presentation of what the distribution center does. In brief, they sell, take orders for and ship out most of the books printed by HarperCollins, the umbrella company for Avon and a lot of other imprints, too. The actual distribution center is a highly computerized system with 99.1 percent accuracy, and when Ron Pocius took me on the tour, I was open-mouthed at being surrounded by millions and millions of books stacked in cartons and whipping past me on the conveyor belt. It was an author’s heaven. Then Dan Holod took me through the office where I met the people who take book orders (God bless them every one!). I ate with and signed books for Olga Nolan’s sales staff (first row, Kerri Sikorski (with scarf), moi, and Dawn Rembish, second row same order, Deb Evans, Olga, Denise DePalma & Kim Gombar.) Then, as if the rest of it wasn’t enough, they gave me a Valentine’s box full of candy (which may have saved my life considering the fight I had getting fed) and the same belt the people in the warehouse use, embroidered with my name. These people are surrounded by books every day, and they love to read and they love authors! Bad hotel, no food, but major adoration coming at me and I returned it completely! Thank you, HarperCollins Distribution Center! Posted: 11/26/2007 Back to Previous Page | Back to Blog Home |
Monthly Archives |