ALOHA

Just a quick note from Hawaii, where I'm on vacation. It is beautiful here and the weather is glorious. I'm sitting gazing at a beautiful beach pondering on the plot of my next book. If you've never visited Hawaii and you get the chance, and you can rustle up the cash, please do so. It is definitely worth it.

I'm still managing to keep up with my favourite TV shows while I'm here - love HULA - which we don't have access to in the UK. Damnation! If that volcano in Iceland keeps erupting I may never get to go home- shame, but there it is....

One note, if you've read my previous posts you'll know I'm a great Legend of the Seeker fan. At present there has been no word as to whether season three will go ahead. Apparently one of its major distributors Tribune Entertainment are in deep shit...sorry financial trouble. Consequently ABC/Disney have to find another home for the show. Anyone who wants to have a hand in trying to save the show should log onto one of the many Legend of the Seeker websites or go to
http://saveourseeker.info/.

Sorry I'm useless at doing links and my resident techie isn't in Hawaii.

See you all soon with more news of Savage Kingdom.

Deanna

Sam Worthington is everywhere

Well this is rather an overstatement, but for the life of me I cannot comprehend what casting directors see in this guy. He seems quite pleasant, he is an Aussie, and he is a good enough actor but to me he just doesn't have that ephemeral thing, that no one can quite put their fingers on, called star quality.
Heroes need that, for sure they do.
Sam was fine enough in the last Terminator movie and he was okay in Avatar - a brilliant movie. There it was his Na'vi alter ego that was the star of the film for me.
However, I have just seen Clash of the Titans and a a crew cut guy with an Aussie accent didn't do it for me. He was just so, so wrong for the part and looked totally out of place with the rest of the cast and there wasn't even the faintest sparkle of star quality - this guy was supposed to be a demi-god after all. Not only should he have looked like one, he should have sounded like one as well. Also this film was initially made in 2D and converted to 3D and it doesn't work in 3D for me. At times you get double images as if a copy of a person is layered underneath the original image. It is good fun, go see if if you like that sort of thing, but don't pay the extra for 3D it just isn't worth it and when it didn't quite work I found it extremely irritating.
Deanna

What's happened to TV?

It wasn’t so long ago when I used to look forward to the new season of my favourite TV shows but times are changing it appears. Now my TV screen is stuffed full of boring reality shows – with the odd gem such as Any Dream Will Do, of course! If you scroll back through my old posts you will discover I am a fan of Lee Mead. Nevertheless, as far as my old favourites are concerned most are disappointing me and most of the new ones don’t turn out to be nearly as good as I expected…

LOST… they have lost the plot completely on this one it seems to me. I used to love it but now it has reached the final season it can’t finish soon enough for me and get these ridiculous plot lines wrapped up in a comprehensive fashion- somehow I doubt that! Now we have each episode concentrating on one character, showing their life on the island and their life as it would have been if Jacob hadn’t poked his nose in. The only reason that keeps me turning on is the delicious former bad boy, Sawyer, played by the scrumptious Josh Holloway.

24…It is nearly over for 24. Fox has announced this is the last season. I agree, just how many terrorists plots to blow up parts of the USA can Jack be expected to stop. It is getting annoyingly repetitive. Also Jack Bower has mellowed and isn’t as unpredictable as he used to be. That’s exactly what I liked about him. If I recall correctly he chopped off some guys hand in season One. Nevertheless, one thing that did surprise me this week was what Dana did next! That came out of left field. Before this she had been getting on my nerves; she was becoming as irritating as whingy daughter Kim in the first few series. Now it appears she is on the side of the terrorists! I am sure Jack will save the day one again but please don’t kill him off. I want him to have him a long and happy retirement, preferable married to Renee, being the perfect granddad in LA.

FRINGE…still okay but then it is only season two. Walter Bishop is the character who makes it for me.

NCIS…. Still going strong in the States with massive viewing figures. What frustrates me most is Tony DiNozzo played by the cute Michael Weatherly. I loved Michael in Dark Angel, but his character in this show is so damn irritating most of the time, and a hunky hero should not be irritating. He is so juvenile yet he is supposed to be a great agent. Please let him grow up.

GRAY’S ANATOMY/ HOUSE… no opinion, I don’t watch medical shows. I gave them both a try but they didn’t pique my interest in any way.

SADLY MISSED SHOWS….Angel/Farscape/Battlestar Galactica

Now for the future!!!!

V…Looks promising. I liked the original V mini-series and even the TV series, although the aliens did become way too campy. Bitchfest between Diana and Lydia. Why oh why did they just show 4 episodes and then have a 6 months hiatus – weird decision that.

CAPRICA…so, so disappointing. I was looking forward to seeing how the Cylons first came to be and evolved but all we get is Zoë and her irritating family and friends. A total turn off for me – it has none too good ratings – yet it has already been renewed.

FLASH FORWARD…not bad, still deciding.

SPARTICUS Blood and Sand….Due to be shown on Bravo this summer, it had copious amounts of blood and brutality, and lots of naked/ semi naked bodies. It is Rome with swords and gladiators, but I am enjoying it. Scripts have got better after the first 2 episodes.

TORCHWOOD/DR WHO… I love Captain Jack, but he may be a while returning as he is visiting Wisteria Lane at present. We have a new Dr WHO. Can he replace David Tennant, we will have to see.

THIS IS WHAT I CLASS AS THE DESSERT. My motto - “Always save the best until last,” so these too shows are the best as far as I am concerned...

First there is SUPERNATURAL...scary just got sexy…whoopee. Great show, great cast, brilliant stories. Jensen and Jared two seriously cute guys. I fell for Jensen initially in Dark Angel and his old character there is similar to Dean Winchester in ways. We have dark scary monsters, even Lucifer and we also have Angels, some being seriously bad guys – great idea. Dean ending up in hell at the end of season 3, that was awesome and done so well. They have still to avert the apocalypse (Dean and Sam will do it guys, they always do) but after that we now have season 6 to look forward to as well. This is one of the best shows on TV.

DRUM ROLL HERE… my favourite TV show is – LEGEND OF THE SEEKER. What! I hear loads of you say, because this show seems to have gone under the radar somehow, and this show is SO, SO underrated and there is nothing remotely like it on TV. It comes from the same stable as Hercules and Xena but there the resemblance ends. Legend of the Seeker is no tongue in the cheek parody; it is a fantasy in every sense of the word. It is also an exciting adventure story with a beautiful romance which cements it together. The two leads have brilliant chemistry, the cinematography and locations are stunning – it is filmed in New Zealand and unsurprisingly a large amount of the production staff worked on Lord of the Rings. The costumes are great, no plastic chain mail and swords aka Merlin and the music by Joseph LoDuca has already won an Emmy.

The hero, Richard (The seeker) is played by the pecksilicious Craig Horner and his beautiful and mysterious companion Kahlan is played by the beautiful and statuesque Bridget Regan. Add into the mix a wizard, Zedd, played by Bruce Spence (Mad Max, Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit) and a deliciously nasty villain called Darken Rahl, Craig Parker, who is also good looking and charming. Season One really hit its stride with episode Eight Denna. Richard is captured and tortured by a Mord’Sith ( They are leather clad women who live to torture and serve Lord Rahl) Craig’s performance in this is stunning. From then on the show just got better and better, with barely any disappointments. Now we are halfway through Season Two and they have added a sexy Mord'Sith to the mix and the show has risen to even greater heights. Note you can see it on the SciFi channel in the UK.

By the way did I mention that Craig Horner is so deliciously ripped you can’t take your eyes of his chest, and has abs to die for. Thank god the writers find lots of opportunities for him to take off his shirt, and the chemistry between him and Bridget both on and off screen is great. PLEASE TRY TO CATCH THIS SHOW IF YOU CAN…more people need to know about it.

Deanna

Hello SAMHAIN!

Virgin closed the door on Black Lace towards the end of last year and I waved my editor Adam off to, hopefully, greener pastures. I am now pleased, well absolutely delighted to be honest, to say that my first book with SAMHAIN will come out in September 2010.

It is the longest book I've ever written so far, some 125,00 words. I admit that the vast majority of my books were far longer than the permitted 75,000 word max for Black Lace and had to be cut, which I hated, but I was never allowed to indulge myself as I have for Savage Kingdom. It is set in the same fantasy world as two of my former books - Savage Surrender and Wild Kingdom - hence the title! Whispers here - I've always had problems with titles but oddly enough coming up with this one was incredibly easy.

Savage Kingdom tells the story of Nerya a young woman from the kingdom of Freygard and Jaden, a handsome warrior. They find themselves forced to work together in difficult circumstances and thus their adventure begins... I can't say much more without giving something away, but the lands they come from face a fearsome enemy and there will be many trials ahead from them both.

More about Savage Kingdom, and the other books I am working on in the weeks ahead.

Deanna

I am still here...Just

Over the last couple of years my writing has taken somewhat of a back seat for a multitude of different reasons, most of which will only be of interest to folks who know me, not as a writer, but as a friend or relative.

All I will say is that after a couple of months in a wheelchair and then a fair amount of time on crutches you find you look at life in a very different way. Still I have managed to fit in some fun times. Attending both Proms in the Park and an Andrew Lloyd Webber concert in Hyde Park in a wheelchair was interesting. No sitting on damp grass for me, but a seat just in front of the VIP area with a brilliant view to boot. Not bad at all really. In fact I managed to go to a number of events with relative ease, although I dodn't think my other half found it so easy pushing me around all the time!!

Since then I've lost a beloved pet - my sweet 16 year old King Charles Spaniel- seen the demise of Black Lace and my editor Adam go on to pastures new. Also Lust Bites has finished. I know there were a lot of LB fans out there but it wasn't always easy to find something pertinent to erotic writing to blather on about. Here on my own blog I can talk about anything, as long as it doesn't break any libel laws of course. Talking about Lust Bites does remind me of one of my old posts on the site... Men In Chains. So I thought the picture above might be especially pertinent. It is from my most favourite TV programme Legend of the Seeker, an episode entitled Denna.

Never fear, however, if you ever were worried of course! I am writing again and have just signed up with Samhain. More news on that at a later date, and some updates on what is interesting me at present.

Samhain Publishing

Wild Kingdom

Wild Kingdom was reissued at the end of November 2007. It is a erotic fantasy romance and is set in the same universe as my first book Savage Surrender. Actually this book continues on the story of the hero and heroine of Savage Surrender, Tarn and Rianna although I can assure you that you can read this without having read the first book (Author's note Savage Surrender is now out of print and there are currently no plans for Virgin to reissue it but that may well change in the future)
Wild Kingdom:- Salacious excesses abound as war rages in the mythical kingdom of Kabra. Prince Tarn is struggling to drive out the invading army while his betrothed - the beautiful Rianna- has fled the fighting with the mysterious Baroness Crissana.
But the baroness is a fearsome and depraved woman and once they are out of the danger zone she presents Rianna as a plaything to her warlord half-brother Ragnor. In order to rescue his sweetheart, Prince Tarn needs to join forces with his old enemy, Sarin, whose capacity for perverse delights knows no bounds.

Enjoy the book
Deanna

CATCHING UP!!!

I didn't realise I'd left it so long since my last post. Life has been so chaotic lately. Trying to strain my memory and remember what happened at the end of last year.

October
My OH and I got fed up with the most depressingly wet summer on record and took a cheap flight to Spain. As it was the end of the season we decided on a fairly large resort - Salou - on the Costa Blanca. Well it is somewhere in that vicinity. Geography has never been my forte. Flight went well and we picked up a car at the airport and drove to Salou. The drive was fine but the problem was that we'd not been to Salou in years and what had once been a tiny place had expanded into this massive sprawling resort. Consequently we had to drive round for hours and hours to find our hotel. In fact I got to the point of thinking that we'd be spending the night in the car. Frantic note to myself at this point - buy a TomTom asap.

Eventually we found the hotel and got settled in. It wasn't expensive but the rooms were fine, the food good and the sun was shining when we woke up next morning. One thing about Spain however I don't like is the beds - has anyone else notice it is like sleeping on a slab of rock? As I have a bad back this makes life difficult for me and I walk around for about half an hour after I wake up looking rather like Quasimodo (minus the hump) as I'm not able to straighten up properly.

I planned 7 days of relaxing by the pool, reading all the books I've been wanted to read and listening to my MP3 but as OH pointed out we had hired a car so we had to use it. Consequently I had to indulge him and visit a number of places. First stop a monastery high up in the mountains whose name escapes me but it has been turned into a tourist attraction. The name probably got erased from my mind while I was staring down in terror at the steep drop as we traversed winding mountain roads. You'd never guess I have a fear of heights! Then on to Sitges, which was lovely but it started raining and we had to take refuge in a beautiful restaurant and consume copious quantities of delicious chocolate cake.

The day before we left we decided to go to the huge theme park at Salou - Porta Ventura- which is owned by Universal Studios. Having been to a number of such parks in the States owned by Disney and Universal I was really looking forward to it. Problem is the Spanish don't run anything that efficiently and instead of superb organisation we were greet by a chaotic milling crow of excited Spaniards and tourists trying to get into the park. Once inside we did expect at least a few of the signs to be in English - no such luck. Why have signs in English over when 50% of the visitors are British tourists - that is just way too easy.

Okay so my Spanish is good enough to order meals and drinks, perhaps ever ask directions but my vocabulary doesn't include words associated with theme parks such as 'this ride isn't suitable for those of a nervous disposition.' 'Inside this innocent looking exterior is a scary ride in total darkness where anyone with neck or back problems is going to end up crippled for life!! Granted the Spanish aren't overly, if at all concerned with political correctness but I did feel I was taking my life in my hands every time we walked onto a ride. The Polynesian show however was a welcome relaxation, allowing me to gird my loins and ready myself for the next unexpected ride. End result I returned home unharmed but vowing never to visit a Spanish Theme park again!!!
Deanna


November

My only trip this month was a visit to London to the special Children In Need performance of Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.

As the Really Useful Group and the BBC production of the TV show Any Dream Will Do was focusing on fundraising for Children in Need, the star of Joseph Lee Mead was opening the Children in Need appeal and then dashing back to the Adelphi on the Strand for the evening performance. As the early evening traffic is heavy in London he he was doing the journey on a taxi bike - something I'd not heard of before. We were just walking down Maiden Lane towards the theater when we saw a motorbike drawing up a the stage door and off it climbed Lee, looking very cheerful and rather dishy. After asking us if we were coming to the show he dashed into the theatre.


As usual the show was brilliant and the cast seemed even more enthusiastic than usual. Lee got a standing ovation after he sang Close Every Door and there were more standing ovations at the end of the performance. After a short speech from the leading man about the appeal, and the appearance of the winning school choir from Any Dream Will Do, the cast threw themselves just as enthusiastically into the Meggamix as they tossed Pudsey bears into the audience. All in all a good night in the company of wonderful friends.

I'm a fan of Lee of course and can thoroughly recommends this show to everyone it is brilliant, and he is the best Joseph ever by far so, so much better than Donny Osmond or Jason Donovan.

If you haven't seen it book now while you have the chance.

Deanna