I needed a break from the revisions on this book I am trying to finish, so I left my computer in another room and watched While You Were Sleeping with my family.  I first saw this wonderful movie on an airplane and embarrassed myself by crying all the way through it.  I’ve seen it maybe ten or more times, and I cry every single time.  (So does Mr. R, by the way.) Lucy is such a fantastic character and she’s so good with Peter’s family.  She’s lonely and needs them – and they need her.  Jack is perfect as a hero – funny, vulnerable, honorable.  Their HEA is just perfect.

But while Lucy and Jack are fantastic, what really makes this movie great is the secondary characters – the Callahans and Saul, Lucy’s boss, and the irrepressible Joe, Jr.  They bring humor and heart.   They balance this movie.

Secondary characters are an important part of my enjoyment of a book or movie.  When I’m planning my own books, I spend a lot of time thinking about the people that balance the hero and heroine.  Who are they?  Are they good, bad, funny, serious?

Here are some of my favorite secondary characters:
- JD Robb’s IN DEATH series – Mavis Freestone and Peabody
- Jennifer Crusie’s Welcome to Temptation – the whole town, but especially Dillie (the hero’s daughter)
- Judith McNaught’s Almost Heaven – Bentner, the butler who’s read too many crime novels and keeps trying to poison Ian (the hero)
- Tolkien’s LOTR – Sam Gamgee
- Return to Me (movie) – Megan and Joe (Bonnie Hunt and Jim Belushi), plus all the old men who play cards
- The Closer (TV) – Lt. Provenza (the older guy)
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV) – Angel (duh), but Willow and Giles are faves, too

Who are your favorite secondary characters?  Tell me who and why!  Pick from books, movies, TV.  I’ll pick one poster at random to win a copy of my newest hardcover I CAN SEE YOU!

94 Comments »

First,  I CAN SEE YOU hits shelves today!   In it, heroine Eve Wilson has a particular expertise that the hero needs to catch a killer.  She’s an expert in an online virtual world game, in which gamers can be anyone they want to be.  They think they can play unseen, anonymously.  But someone is watching, hunting, waiting for them to let their guard down.  Take a peek at the book video at my website: www.karenrosebooks.com!

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog… While in DC for RWA, youngest daughter and I went to an upscale makeup place for a makeover.  I always look forward to makeovers, although I always experience a little trepidation as I approach the counter.  This day – lots of trepidation.  The makeup lady had really wild eye makeup – greens, purples, bold strokes.   Kind of like the colors of a peacock, just painted on her eyelids.  Not quite as bad as Mimi in the photo, LOL.

I thought, “So this is the lady who’s going to show ME how to apply makeup?”  I almost said, no thank you.  But I’d lost my makeup bag months ago and knew I’d be awfully scary without makeup at RWA.   So I sat on the high stool and put my face in her hands and I had a very good time!  She did a reasonably good job giving me a new “dramatic” look, but best of all, I got to try lots of new colors and new brands, so the fact that she had electric blue eyeshadow on didn’t really hurt the experience at all.

I must admit I’m always a little afraid of hair stylists with wild hair, but I’m more afraid of stylists with an unattractive style.  I always wonder how they can do my hair if theirs looks so horrid.  My current stylist is a man with a very normal haircut.   He wears kind of a tool belt with all his scissors and gear, and somehow all this gives him credibility.  I love the way he cuts my hair and my color is awesome, so it’s good.

I never knew how important a good clothing store clerk was until I experienced one.  It was at Nordstroms in San Francisco last summer.  Now, all clothing stores pale in comparison.  I’ve been spoiled!

For some shopping, finding an expert is more important than others.  I like to shop at Best Buy, because the clerks there seem to know what they’re doing.  But I don’t really care about expertise when I’m shopping for groceries.   Of course I want unerring expertise from doctors, dentists, accountants, car mechanics …

For what stuff that you buy do you want to see expertise and credibility?  How do you judge if somebody’s good or not?   Which places have helpful, knowledgeable sales people?  And for what stuff do you just not care?

50 Comments »

Okay, peeps, tomorrow is my 45th birthday.  Egad!  It seems like I was just 35, like, yesterday.

But I’m not upset about getting a year older, really.  I’m not keen about the wrinkles, but overall, I’m good with my face.  I’ve got good skin and makeup helps.  When the time comes, I wouldn’t be opposed to a little nip/tuck, but that’s in the future somewhere.

I find that I’m looking forward to doing lots of cool things as I get older versus looking back and lamenting the cool things I can no longer do.  I think this is because I was pretty boring when I was young and rarely did anything daring or fun.  Indeed, most of my major milestones occurred once I’d left my twenties, or as I was leaving.

Case in point:
Started writing – age 29
Sold my first book – age 35
Hit the NYT – age 43
Skied my first mountain – age 34
Started karate – age 42
Released I CAN SEE YOU, my TENTH romantic suspense – age 45 (This is shameless promo, but it’s my birthday, okay?)

.
There are a few exceptions:
Earned a college degree – age 21
Got married – age 21
Had my first child – age 25

Now, there is loads of Stuff I still want to do:
Learn Italian
Ski bigger mountains
Drive really, really fast on a racetrack
Climb Mt. Fuji (I always just wanted to)

What are your milestones?  What cool stuff have you done post-twenties or even post-thirties or forties?  What cool stuff do you still want to do?  Any advice for me as I turn 45?

57 Comments »

I have been writing for weeks, my … er, self in my chair, which means I haven’t gotten out much.  My office is my own little cave and I find I’ve surrounded myself with stuff that brings back memories or just stuff I like to look at.  It’s my own version of cavepaintings.

Now, I have to tell you that my office has changed a bit in the last month.  Mr. R has been home this summer and has undertaken my office as a project.  Initially, he said some rather disparaging things about my filing system – which was basically lots of piles of paper on the carpet.  He whooshed in and grabbed everything and spent a day sorting and pitching.  Filing is beyond even his mighty powers, LOL.  But now I can open my mini-fridge and I can see my carpet again!  All of my carpet, not just the footpath from the door to my computer chair.

So all the stuff left surrounding me is stuff I’ve chosen to keep.  It’s important, because when I’m in a book, this is where I spend the bulk of my time.  What’s painted on the wall of my cave?

• Pictures of friends from my days at P&G and snapshots of my travels
• My early bookcovers in frames
• Old badges from conventions hanging on a peg and my ribbons from RWA, starting the year I was a RITA finalist the first time.
• From the shelf above my head my ugly statue collection stares down at me – and they make me smile.  I added a few gargoyles I bought in the gift shop at Westminster Abbey last summer.  They give me a start when I’ve scared myself in a villain scene!
• My collection of masks, including scary tribal and fragile Venetian.  They’re pretty cool.
• My RITA statue.  She even gets dusted.  She’d like a friend, too.  Just sayin’.
• The license plate from my car the year I made my first sale – RMCEWRTR - the only time I’ve had a vanity plate.   Maybe it was good luck?

Fun Fact:  I was writing KILL FOR ME, which was released in paperback yesterday (yes, shameless self-promo), and I looked up and saw my license plate.  A scene popped into my head which would be one of the core storylines in the book – a black car gliding by heroine Susannah Vartanian, with the plate DRC119.  If you’ve read KILL FOR ME, you’ll remember.  If you haven’t read it yet, for Heaven’s sake, go get it! Then when you read the scene with the license plate, you’ll know where it came from — one of my cavepaintings .  Okay, now returning to previously scheduled blog, still in progress….

I like my little cave.  I think it says a lot about me, because it’s mostly stuff I’ve collected over the years.  I like the pretty and the scary – which is romantic suspense in a nutshell.

What’s painted on the wall of your cave?  Which room is your cave?  What thing(s) do you keep that say the most about you?  And don’t forget that KILL FOR ME is on the shelves!

52 Comments »

For those of you not living in the US, today is TAX DAY.

Now, some of us here (and I am not included in this number), have already filed their taxes and gotten their refunds.  I am not of this number because A) I never get a refund and B) I just don’t get it done super early.  I’m an April 14 kind of girl, always filing one day early in the event of catastrophe.  Filing taxes tops the list of  “STUFF I DON’T WANNA DO.”

The list, abridged:

- File my taxes.  ‘Nuff said.

- Clean out my closet.  I have a walk-in closet in name only.  I can’t walk into it because I’ve piled too much crap on the floor.  I keep meaning to clean it out, because somewhere in the pile is my karate gi.  My yellow belt is actually hanging nicely on a hanger as it is disrespectful for the belt to touch the floor.  I am a slob, but a respectful one.  (I did, however, clean off the dining room table so that we could have Easter dinner on it.  Woot!  Except some of the stuff ended up in the closet.  Noooo!)

- Get on the treadmill.  Duh.

- Have a colonoscopy.  Double duh.  I did have my annual exam and my mammogram, but just hearing the name of the other makes me shudder.  Perhaps if they called it “The test that should not be named” it would be easier.  Nah.

- Watch the last seasons of Stargate SG-1.  ‘Cause it has no Jack O’Neill.  I’ve had these DVD’s staring me in the face for a year now, a gift from DH, but I can’t bring myself to watch them without Jack.  (Yes, I’d like a little cheese with my whine.)

- Throw out a giftbox of Cadbury chocolates I bought in England last year.  Okay, let me preface this by saying this box was one of the things I found while cleaning off my dining room table for Easter dinner.   I socked it away in a “safe” place, meaning one my chocolate-inhaling minions (children) would not find.   I know I should just throw it away, but it’s like a security blanket, having a little chocolate hidden away.  You know, in case of fire, break glass.  In case of stress, eat chocolate.  It’s an assortment, so at least some of it will be dark chocolate, which has antioxidants, which are like … good for me, right?   I am SO full of it, aren’t I?  Okay, fine.  It’s CADBURY.  From ENGLAND.  Which is WAY BETTER than Cadbury here.  Besides, if I put it off long enough, it will go bad, in which case I will be able to throw it out without remorse.  If I can remember the “safe” place in which I stashed it.  Sigh.

What is on your list of STUFF YOU DON’T WANNA DO?  And why?  What lame-o excuses do you make to yourself?  And if you already got your tax refund, I DON’T WANNA HEAR ABOUT IT

53 Comments »