Archive for June 8th, 2010

Chick Flick Tuesday highlights the best chick flicks in the movie world as well as bringing you news on upcoming chick flick releases as well as letting you all know about which chick lit books are being made into chick flick movies!

An Ideal Husband is by far my favorite Chick Flick and oddly enough it was originally presented to me by my husband who was studying the book in one of his literature classes at the time. To begin with I should say that I am a huge fan of almost anything Oscar Wilde has written, including, An Ideal Husband. The book version of what Wilde wrote is perfect and it’s hard to imagine anything being able to improve on what he put forth in the book, but the movie truly is incredible. What more can I say than Rupert Everett? His character alone makes the movie worth watching, not to mention the supporting cast that includes some very big names in the business. Everything about this movie makes you laugh and giggle from the snarky commentary to the tremendous one-liners delivered by Everett. But by the end you are absolutely in love. Perfect.

“Sexy leading man Rupert Everett heads an acclaimed all-star cast in this wonderfully witty story of decadence, romance, and scandal! Sir Robert is a highly respected politician whose spotless reputation is the pride of his beautiful wife (Cate Blanchett ) and adoring sister (Minnie Driver). But when an old acquaintance (Julianne Moore) threatens to reveal a dark secret from Robert’s past, only his womanizing party-loving best friend Goring (Everett) is scheming and dishonest enough to come to his aid.”

Belinda Jones is one of my favourite authors. I’ve read and loved Divas Las Vegas, The California Club, Cafe Tropicana and Out of the Blue. So I was thrilled when I received a proof of Belinda’s new one Living La Vida Loca a few months ago. I really enjoyed it and you can see what I thought of it tomorrow when my review goes up! I asked Belinda’s publishers if we could do an interview with her and I was so pleased when I was told yes. It is one of the best interviews I’ve done and it’s a fantastic read so I hope you enjoy it!

1. Tell us about your latest novel Living La Vida Loca.

A reality TV crew follow two best friends - Carmen and Beth - to Argentina, Spain and Cuba on a dance odyssey. As well as the sultry gauchos, proud matadors and rum-flavoured Cubans who provide the romance, there is a very special cameo from one of the original cast members of Dirty Dancing: Miranda Garrison who played Bungalow Bunny Vivian gave me a private dance lesson while I was observing the filming of Living TV’s dance show searching for a new Johnny & Baby in Virginia and she made such a big impression on me that I created a character entirely around her!

2. Why did you decide to make Living La Vida Loca all about dancing?

I’ve always been entranced by dancers, ever since my mum took me to my first ballet age six, and watching Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing With The Stars just fuelled my obsession. When I was going through a really horrible time in my life, watching all those novices in their gorgeous glitzy costumes giving it their all and bonding so beautifully with their professional partners really captured my imagination and I wanted to put myself in their shoes. So I did - literally! But as well as taking classes I wanted to find out more about the real essence of the dance - hence the trips to their countries of origin!

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The start of another month means one thing: Fiona Cassidy’s next installment about what it takes to become a published author. If you’ve missed Fiona’s previous entries you can read them here: Where It All Began and What’s The Story? and Agent Provocauthor and You’ve Got Mail and The Write Factor. We now present to you the sixth article of twelve… enjoy! We’ve also moved the series to Tuesday mornings due to Saturday’s being American Saturdays. We’re hoping the new day will get us a bigger response because this is a fab series. Our thanks, as ever, go to Fionnuala for writing this series for us!

It was the summer of 2007 when I decided to totally change my writing style and pen a brand new novel! We were on holiday in rainy, windy Donegal at the time and the children were all driving me nuts as they moaned, fought and slowly sent me drifting closer to a home for the bewildered as I wondered how the hell I was going to keep them entertained and myself sane (not necessarily in that order!) I made a flippant comment to my beloved that I should write a book about it because you couldn’t make it up and he matter of factly answered and told me that that was exactly what I should do. He also handed me a twenty euro note and told me to go and get my hair done and chill out. I obliged (naturally) and can say that as I sat in the hairdressers that day and let the young girl at the sink massage my scalp and ease my tension that at that moment Anyone for Seconds? was born! It didn’t get its title until much later but it was where the bones of the story formed in my head!

I’ve already talked about how frustrating it can be to get so close to something only to be let down at the last minute and it had been happening quite a lot so after I had picked myself up and dusted myself off I adopted a new approach. I took a deep breath and put the book, I had been writing, in a cupboard in my kitchen where it would remain untouched for a long time, turned on my laptop and put the idea that had flourished over a sink on a dismal wet summer’s day into practice. I had received quite a bit of feedback as a result of my fervent ache for an agent and publisher and every single review of my work that had been written had said the same thing…I was funny…I had excellent comedy timing…and my writing was warm and witty so I thought I’d exploit the fact and write a romantic comedy. My writing before this had had funny moments and a series of one-liners but was probably a lot more serious and written in a more literary vein. I had always enjoyed reading funny books that made me laugh out loud but supposed I had never explored the idea that I would have the skills to write one myself!

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