Something “about me,” huh? Well, if you have nothing much happening at the moment – on hold with the DMV, perhaps – now would be the ideal time to read this riveting stuff. I’m a native Californian, have four daughters, three sons, two Bichons, one husband, a weekly humor/human interest/sporadic book review column for the Yorba Linda Star – OC Register community newspaper – and a total love for reading anything and everything, fiction and non. My children inspire much of my material for the humor column, but (please, God) will hopefully provide zero material if I ever write crime fiction. For purposes of crimespace, please consider me strictly a very interested reader.
Books And Authors I Like:
Either in general or for their one-hit wonders (one-hit for me, anyway), and in no particular order: John Grisham, Elmore Leonard, Stephen King, Joseph Wambaugh, Michael Crichton, Judith Guest, Frank McCourt, Khaled Hosseini, Dan Brown, Austen Burroughs, Peter Straub, Tolkien, J.K. Rowling (is it ok to admit that here?), Jon Krakauer, Richard Preston, Martin Cruz Smith. Oh, and S.J. Rozan for Absent Friends. And, well, Paul Reiser. Have you read Couplehood? HILARIOUS! And Dave Barry. Oh my gosh. Not at all crime oriented, but I couldn't NOT mention him.
Movies And TV Shows I Like:
I'm all over the board here -The Quiet Man, Fargo, The Sixth Sense, Stranger Than Fiction, Crash, One Flew Ove the Cuckoo's Nest, The Usual Suspects, Like Water For Chocolate, Afraican Queen, All That Jazz, The Princess Bride, Arthru, Sling Blade, Dial M for Murder, Babe, A Beautiful Mind, Murder By Death, Silence of the Lambs, Psycho, The Breakfast Club, Signs, Jesus Christ Superstar, To Kill A Mockingbird, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Misery, Best in Show, The Birds, Pulp Fiction, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Unbreakable, Rear Window, Shawshank Redemption, No Way Out, Waiting For Guffman, Pirates of the Caribbean, Marathon Man, Brubaker, Raising Arizona, Young Frankenstein, Million Dollar Baby, Das Boot, The Shining, Cast Away, Ordinary People, The Sting, A Christmas Story, Parenthood, Click, Little Miss Sunshine, A Fish Called Wanda, GhostStory, Search For the Holy Grail, Ice Age, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Chocolat, Kramer vs. Kramer, March of the Penguins, Matrix, Moonstruck, Napoleon Dynamite, Omen (original), The Other (NOT The Others), philadelphia Story, Rain Man, Forrest Gump, Sweeney Todd, When harry Met Sally, and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane.
(inhale...)
TV programs pertaining to crime - CSI Las Vegas, The Closer, Missing. And only if I remember to tape them. I really need to get that T-Vo (sp?) thingy...
Hi and thanks for inviting me into your cyber family! You're welcome to come on over to my cyber porch and sit a spell anytime ya want to! :) The tea is always sweet and cold and we never run out of Moon Pies! LOL
Hi Patti,
I live in Orange County, too. I'll check out the Yorba Linda Star and look for your reviews. One of these days, I'll send you a book to peruse. I guarantee you’ll love it. It will be one of mine…
Thanks for the invitation. If Absent Friends is your only exposure to S.J. Rozan, you really ought to read her Bill Smith and Lydia Chin stories. I'm looking forward to getting acquainted,
Four daughters. Three sons. Seven kids? Seven? Good grief, how do you do it? I've got two kids and by 7:30 pm I'm near dead exhausted. There's got to be some kind of medal...or medication...for someone with seven kids, right?
Thanks so much for inviting me to be your friend....and what a marvellous life you must lead with your seven children, two bichons and one husband, in that glorious part of California, which I visited several years ago.
Thanks for stopping by my page, and your invitation. I look forward to being a part of this group. I note that you list Elmore Leonard in your authors list; he's one of my favorites, too, but I especially enjoyed his early Western short stories. A great writer.
Hi, Patti. It's always good to meet a fellow journalist. Hope you can review my book when it comes out. It's my first one, and I need all the help I can get!
Hi Patti, thanks for adding me. I see you're a fan of Shawshank Redemption, too - which I always think of as a book-keeping thriller: not many of those!
Hi Patti..thanks for the comment to my blog. It's always nice to find someone who understands the frustrations of dealing with Girl Scout cookie season! I think we have found our solution. We only buy the cookies we want..let her sell to the one neighbor who always prepays...and the rest comes from cookie booth sales. Mine's 13 and in an older girl troop. By this age, selling cookies is 'lame' and 'booooooring!" so it isn't unusual that their numbers would slack some. I was cookie mom for 4 of hte last 5 yrs. Refused it this year...burned out!
Ah yes. I made a decent living for eight years as a reporter. Amazing the things people will tell you on the record. I think it helps ficiton writers hone down what is important. A lot of self-editing, particularly with small, local papers. Editors don't have time to edit. I got very good at keeping something to 1500 words at a smack. Good luck with your work.
Maybe I'm confused! Isn't your photo/avatar wearing a Darth Vader mask and spotted wings?
The summer that I was ten, I was so afraid of my grandparents' bathtub, I didn't bathe the entire week of my visit there. Just hurriedly stuck my hand behind the curtain and let the water run for five minutes and washed up at the sink. And that was BEFORE I saw Psycho.
I hope you sleep. Stop by--I'll tell you a story.....HeeHee!
It is very beautiful in Arizona. I've been here about 35 years now, and the landscape is still stunning to me. At first, I missed the grass and trees ((I'm from Nebraska), but the beauty of the desert really grows on you.
No, I hadn't heard of Disburbia. I doubt anyone can get the whole package right: the actors, the set, the script, the atmosphere, the direction, Grace Kelly, more beautiful than anyone ever. It happens so rarely.
Patti,
Thanks for the invite to be a friend. Like you, I wrote a humor column for a number of years and my kids provided the fodder for each week's piece. Sometimes they would fight over who got the most column exposure over a period of time. Other times they would say, "You are NOT going to write about this." If things were dull around my house for a while, I could always get material from my friends, who also at times said, "You are NOT going to write about this."
Paul Guyot
Mar 10, 2007
Daniel Hatadi
Cheers,
Daniel
Mar 10, 2007
Paul Guyot
Only certain people can be your friend?
BQ? Come on... a guy named after a fast food burger?
Oh, that was BK. Never mind.
Mar 11, 2007
Pari Noskin Taichert
Mar 31, 2007
Laine
Apr 5, 2007
mary christian
Nice to meet you!
Paul (That's a picture of me. I tried to change it to one of my wife, Mary, but I couldn't. so everyone probably thinks I'm a cross dresser.)
Apr 5, 2007
Jeff Sherratt
I live in Orange County, too. I'll check out the Yorba Linda Star and look for your reviews. One of these days, I'll send you a book to peruse. I guarantee you’ll love it. It will be one of mine…
Apr 5, 2007
Mark Troy
Thanks for the invitation. If Absent Friends is your only exposure to S.J. Rozan, you really ought to read her Bill Smith and Lydia Chin stories. I'm looking forward to getting acquainted,
Apr 5, 2007
Dennis Venter
Four daughters. Three sons. Seven kids? Seven? Good grief, how do you do it? I've got two kids and by 7:30 pm I'm near dead exhausted. There's got to be some kind of medal...or medication...for someone with seven kids, right?
Apr 5, 2007
CT
Apr 5, 2007
Elaine Flinn
Apr 6, 2007
Dennis Leppanen
Thanks for the invite. What's a Bichon? And why two?
Apr 7, 2007
Larry W. Chavis
Thanks for stopping by my page, and your invitation. I look forward to being a part of this group. I note that you list Elmore Leonard in your authors list; he's one of my favorites, too, but I especially enjoyed his early Western short stories. A great writer.
Apr 7, 2007
Deborah Pesa
Apr 8, 2007
Charles Kelly
Chuck
Apr 8, 2007
Laura Benedict
Nice to meet you! Blessings--Laura
Apr 8, 2007
Mary L. Wheeling
Apr 8, 2007
Yang-May Ooi
Apr 8, 2007
Laine
Anyway..just wanted to say HEY and thanks! :)
Apr 8, 2007
Meredith Anthony
Apr 10, 2007
Dennis Leppanen
I did suspect they were dogs. I was teasing you just a bit. Yes, ol' Dutch Leonard is tops. I saw Larry's comments.
Apr 10, 2007
Jeri Westerson
Apr 10, 2007
Laura Benedict
The summer that I was ten, I was so afraid of my grandparents' bathtub, I didn't bathe the entire week of my visit there. Just hurriedly stuck my hand behind the curtain and let the water run for five minutes and washed up at the sink. And that was BEFORE I saw Psycho.
I hope you sleep. Stop by--I'll tell you a story.....HeeHee!
Apr 10, 2007
Brian Thornton
Cool Vader helmet. I've been looking to score one of those for aeons. Thanks very much for the friend invite. You sound like an absolute hoot!
Apr 10, 2007
Charles Kelly
Apr 10, 2007
Patricia Abbott
Apr 10, 2007
Maryann Miller
Thanks for the invite to be a friend. Like you, I wrote a humor column for a number of years and my kids provided the fodder for each week's piece. Sometimes they would fight over who got the most column exposure over a period of time. Other times they would say, "You are NOT going to write about this." If things were dull around my house for a while, I could always get material from my friends, who also at times said, "You are NOT going to write about this."
Apr 12, 2007
Jordan Dane
Apr 25, 2007
a g bennett
All the best.
Apr 25, 2007
Robert K. Foster
Apr 25, 2007
Jeff Markowitz
Apr 25, 2007