New and improved...or is it?

We recently went to see a little theatre production of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. For those of you not familiar with the story, here’s a brief description:

Ten people are invited to an isolated mansion on a private island. On prominent display in the mansion are copies of a poem about the deaths of ten little soldiers, as well as a grouping of ten small ceramic figurines representing...you guessed it. The soldiers. Not long after the guests arrive, they’re cut off from the mainland—and then someone begins murdering them one by one. The circumstances of the murders match the deaths in the poem, and as each victim is claimed, one of the statues goes missing.


The actors were great, the set appropriate to the time period, the mystery as intriguing as ever. They’d even found a clever method of eliminating the statues at the time of each murder. But...


The ending of the play didn’t match the ending of the book.


As a romance writer, I have to say, the different ending to the play satisfied me. But as a long-time mystery reader and a huge Agatha Christie fan, I’ll tell you truthfully, I was crushed. It didn’t help at all for me to learn that the new ending for the play had been written by Agatha herself.

FYI, all this didn’t come as a surprise to me; I’d read the book and seen both the play and movie versions many times before. But, still...

I was crushed. LOL

How do you feel about it when one of your favorite books is turned into a script for the stage or the big or little screen? Are you okay with the new version? Or do you wish they’d stayed true to the original?


All my best to you,

Barbara

~~~~~~

Barbara White Daille
http://www.barbarawhitedaille.com

The Thrill of Discovery and Survival

I love the feeling of discovering a new author, a new series, a new TV show or new band. It's a little like falling in love -- the initial excitement, the all-consuming need to be with them all the time.

I'd say most, if not all, of us here have been excited about reading since we could make out words. There is nothing quite like discovering a new author, book or series that keeps us up reading way past when we should be calling it a night and getting some sleep. I've felt that way about the Harry Potter books, the Twilight books, Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books, Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games series, J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood. Now I can add Susan Beth Pfeffer's The Last Survivors series. I hadn't heard of this young adult series until I recently saw the third book, This World We Live In, at the bookstore on the recent releases shelf. The premise is that a giant asteroid hits the moon and knocks it closer to Earth, causing catastrophic climate change and lots of death. The first story, Life As We Knew It, is set in rural Pennsylvania and follows how a teenage girl's family copes with the aftermath of the collision. The second, The Dead and Gone, takes place during the same period, but it illustrates how a teenage boy and his siblings survive in New York City. I'm almost finished with the second book, so I'll be starting This World We Live In, in which the two families somehow cross paths.

I don't know why, but I've always been fascinated by survival stories -- Robinson Crusoe, Julie of the Wolves, The Swiss Family Robinson, The Hunger Games, Defiance (the WWII movie with Daniel Craig), The Day After Tomorrow. I'm interested in how people will survive if they're stripped down to their very base nature -- the need for food and water. Watching the news after big events like hurricanes and earthquakes gives us a glimpse that it doesn't take long for man to get back to that basic instinct for survival. All the niceties of civilized society go out the window when you're hungry and thirsty. But in spite of that, it's inspiring to see the triumph of the human spirit -- those stories of people surviving in earthquake rubble for more than a week, against all odds. The ones who are mauled by a bear or cougar and manage to drag themselves miles to a road. Man will do a lot to survive.

Do you like survival stories. If so, what are some of your favorites?

Favorite heroines

I've seen lots of blog posts lately about favorite fictional heroes, and that makes sense because we often read romance or watch movies and/or TV programs because of the heroes. I have to say, I like a heroine who can hold her own too. I like heroines, and even write some of them, who can kick butt and take names and still be feminine at the end of the day. All you have to do is scan the bookstore shelves, the TV Guide or the DVD selection at Best Buy to find that this type of heroine is popular. I think it's because we, as women, want to feel that we can hold our own with men, we can be in control without giving up those aspects that make us uniquely women (oh, say, like enjoying buying cute shoes).

Let's take a look at some popular gals who fall into this category:

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- I admire show creator Joss Whedon a great deal for the strong heroines he writes and his dedication to showing the strength a woman can possess. Buffy was a cute little blond teenager when she came into her powers, but looks were deceiving. She could kill vampires and various demons with an ease the grown men in her world couldn't even dream of. And the vast majority of the time, she was stylin' when she did it. Even if she was a badass, she still dealt with things like dating problems, losing her first love, and sibling rivalry. Willow Rosenberg, her good friend, was a very powerful witch who could even kick Buffy's behind if she fully tapped into her power.

2. Wonder Woman -- She was the first superheroine I remember, both on the Superfriends cartoon on Saturday mornings and in the Lynda Carter primetime show. Being a fan of Wonder Woman led to being a fan of other superheroines like Elektra, Firestar, Jean Grey, Rogue, Storm, Sara Pezzini/Witchblade, and Xena.

3. Max Guevara -- from the show Dark Angel (one of Jessica Alba's easier roles); she was a genetically enhanced super-soldier.

4. Bionic Woman -- Lindsey Wagner's version of Jaime Sommers was a childhood favorite, and I've been enjoying the new version played by Michelle Ryan.

5. The heroines of urban fantasy -- Urban fantasy is a very popular genre right now, and many of the protagonists are women. Authors such as Patricia Briggs, Rachel Caine, Laurell K. Hamilton, Tanya Huff (her Blood books have made it to the small screen in the form of Lifetime's Blood Ties), Rachel Vincent and others bring strong heroines to the reading public.

6. If I think about just the TV shows I watch now, there are very strong women in Bionic Woman, Blood Ties, Heroes, Supernatural, Smallville, and Stargate Atlantis.

Even though many of these heroines either have superpowers or are just trained to be able to handle themselves in tough situations, that isn't the end all and be all of strong heroines. An everyday woman like those who appear in our Harlequin American novels can be strong too. They can face adversity, weather it, and come out the other side even stronger. I'm in the midst of writing my second American (actually that's why I'm late blogging today -- oops), and the heroine has had to be strong because her life was totally turned upside down by something someone close to her did. She's having to start over even though she doesn't know if it'll work out. That takes a different kind of strength, but strength nonetheless.

Give me a heroine who is strong any day, whether that strength is superpower in nature or just the strength of the Average Jane. Just don't give me a wimpy, whiney heroine. That will make me close a book or click off the TV faster than anything.

Okay, now it's your turn. Who are some of your favorite fictional heroines from books, TV or movies?

Christmas Traditions

My husband and I were married on December 22nd many years ago, in a church decorated with greenery and poinsettias. We spent our first Christmas together on our honeymoon. To me, Christmas has always been the most romantic time of year, one filled with tradition and memories.

That first Christmas, we exchanged gifts with my husband’s parents a few days before the wedding. They gave us camping equipment, which we’d wanted. (We got engaged on a camping trip.) Then his mother presented me with a small wrapped box. In it was one of those Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments — Our First Christmas Together. That started the tradition of buying a new ornament each year. If the ornament isn’t already marked with the year, I mark it. We have a ceramic ornament I purchased at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. I was thrilled to find one marked 1997 — that particular year. Only when we unwrapped it later to hang on the tree did we realized the stylized script actually read 1907. We always make jokes about remembering that as a very good year. A wooden plane commemorates the year my husband took flying lessons. Others mark new houses. All the milestone years are also celebrated with special ornaments — 10, 15, 20 and 25th anniversaries.

There are other special ornaments on our tree. Ornaments purchased in different places we’ve visited. Ornaments given to us by friends. And pictures of our beloved dogs, both past and present. Decorating the tree is a trip down memory lane for us, and a special way to start the holiday season.

I try to make time during the holidays for listening to special music (the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Garibaldi), watching holiday movies (While You Were Sleeping, A Christmas Story and Love, Actually are three must-sees) and reading Christmas books. I love Christmas-themed short story collections and just finished The Perfect Tree by Roz Denny Fox, Ann DeFee and Tanya Michaels. I highly recommend it!

Not all my traditions are old. When we moved to Colorado, we added the tradition of going out into the National Forest near our home to cut our tree. We take the dogs and tramp around in the snow for an hour or so until we find just the right tree. Then we cut it, haul it to the truck, and toast our choice with hot cocoa.

A girlfriend and I have made it a tradition these past three years to get together one afternoon after the decorations are up and treat ourselves to tea at Denver’s elegant Brown Palace Hotel.

Traditions help set this time of year apart from ‘ordinary time,’ help us to get into the right frame of mind and enrich the holidays. They can be as elaborate as a holiday feast and as simple as a cup of eggnog. And they can be adapted, discarded, or re-created as it suits our needs. So what are your holiday traditions? What traditions have you added recently? Which ones have you discarded in favor of something else?

Whatever your traditions or celebrations, I wish you much peace and happiness in the coming year — and many wonderful books to read!