|
    |
Alive and Thinking in Cyberspace: Pam's take on just about everything
Bon voyage… almost.
We leave for Brussels, Belgium tomorrow… for the International Society for the Study of Romance Fiction Conference.
Smart folks, lots of art and chocolate!
Oh, and frites!
Will write more from en route!
MAD MEN isn’t my all-time favorite TV drama series — which is forever tied between BUFFY and THE WIRE. But it’s pretty good and I’ll be happy to have it back tonight.
And of course as a historical writer I’m delighted by its attention to period detail, remarked upon by just about everyone including me in the matter of clothes and decor.
Clothes, decor, and — oh geez — hairstyles. In 1961 I was the same age as Mad Man character Duck Phillips’s daughter and wearing that same unbecoming shirtwaist and teased and lacquered Mary Tyler Moore hairflip. I nearly cried to see her looking so miserable in those clothes and hair, sometime during (I guess) Season Two. If I had any say in the matter I’d bring the character back for a tiny scene with nice straight hair (maybe with long Juliet Greco style bangs) and a black turtleneck, just to show that having Duck for a dad and those awful styles to wear didn’t totally ruin her life.
Well, you get the idea about how the clothes, hair, and decor thing goes on Mad Men, at least in the overheated, much too personal and slightly embarrassed memories of certain of its constant viewers.
But what I hadn’t thought about was the language thing. Because according to this lovely little piece in today’s Sunday New York Times Magazine, the writers of the show expend sizeable effort on period-correct language, even to consulting the OED, as I do, for possible anachronisms.
Of course (as in some pretty good historical romances), as Times language columnist Ben Zimmer points out, some linguistic anachronisms do find their way into Mad Men. Zimmer cites “Don’s ‘the window of opportu
nity for this apology is closing’ and Roger’s ‘I know you have to be on the same page as him’” — both as late 70s usages.
And I do remember being troubled by that “on the same page” as well as wondering about Joan’s “1960, I am so over you,” which, according to Zimmer, Mad Men creator Matt Weiner has defended by pointing to the Cole Porter song “So in Love” from “Kiss Me, Kate.”
Which lame excuse Zimmer justly and neatly demolishes. Viz: ”Scholars of semantics might disagree, seeing a nuance between Porter’s use of the adverb so, which quantifies the extent to which the character is in love, and the later Generation X-style spin on the word as an intensifier meaning “extremely” or “completely” without any comparison of relative degree.”
(Lovely bit of distinction-making that, don’t you think? Not to speak of use of the word nuance.)
Though I’m still holding out for Peggy’s slightly anachronistic ”I’m in a very good place right now.” Not because I believe that people generally said that in 1963, but because Peggy was high at the time, and I could almost, delightfully, imagine her imagination loosing as she slipped into a spacial metaphor to describe her state of mind. Quite as ours did a million years ago when we said far out and outtasight.
And which is whywhy (even if it isn’t as good a show as Breaking Bad) I’ll be avidly watching Mad Men tonight.
Will you?
And a very happy 4th of July, everyone.
Which is an anniversary for me — of the long-ago day when Michael and I first became a couple.
And which, last week, was close to another anniversary — the hundredth of the birth of the great American pop composer Frank Loesser, who wrote GUYS AND DOLLS, and some 700 songs that are so profoundly part of our cultural landscape that you can hardly believe they weren’t always there, like Heart and Soul.
Anyway, I had a great time posting it at History Hoydens, and received some heartfelt responses from others who felt the same way. So come on over if you’re moved to.
When old friends ask about the shape of my life since early retirement from my longtime, demanding day job as a computer programmer, I sometimes startle them by telling the truth — or one of the big truths — about what makes things rich and fun.
Which is the smart, wonderful women (and a few men) I’ve met through being a romance writer… and a part-time worker at Weight Watchers (later about Weight Watchers, except to say that it’s been a terrific experience this time around and that I’m almost at my new, more realistic goal).
While as for the smart, wonderful women I’ve met in the romance biz…
Well, I’ve been a fan of Joanna Bourne since The Spymaster’s Lady. So it was an absolute delight when last year at the rehearsal for the RITA ceremony, I met her, and in the most fun way: We sat together and giggled and whispered snarky, nervous remarks about how weird it was to be up against genre superstars, not to speak of each other, for Best Historical Romance. Making it one of the high points of the conference for me, to find out that this extraordinary writer was so nice, approachable, and wicked funny. PS — she was a double nominee, and won for Best Regency Romance, which (from my p.o.v.) was perfect ;-}
But now you can all find out just how nice, approachable, wicked funny and dazzling smart she is on a regular basis, as she’s recently joined the venerable Word Wenches blog, a week ago submitting a debut post that (and I’m not the first person to say this) just might be the best romance blog post ever, which you can read here.
(And while you’re there, please do check out my own guest post today.)
Congratulations to Lettetia from St. Helens, OR, who — as the winner of my just-completed contest — is now richer by some ten or a dozen autographed copies of books by me and my fellow bloggers at History Hoydens.
A new contest is going up today. Check it out…
And congratulations (and thanks too) as well to Virginia, from Clifton Forge, VA, who was the high bidder for the Sense and Sensuality Gift Basket I offered on Brenda Novak’s Auction for Diabetes Research. The thanks are due her because I’m having such a wonderful time putting together this offering. (I’ll be mailing it out when I figure out how to use the ice-gel packs I bought, to keep the chocolates and French cookies cold!)
And in fact, I enjoyed making this basket so much that I’m offering one as a prize for my next contest, which starts today. So come and play!
A man wakes up in a strange bed, with only a whiff of lovely scent to remind him how he got there:
He sniffed: rosemary and lavender [hanging from the ceiling beams to dry]. And something else, spicy as cinnamon, tart as
lemon. A woman. The sheets of her bed smelled like her. — from The Bookseller’s Daughter
After a long period of mourning, woman thinks she might be falling in love:
She’d been cool, unhurried at first. She’d explored his mouth with her tongue, nibbled gently at his lips with her teeth. She’d gone as slowly possible, tasting and sampling (oh Lord he’d tasted good — sweet as toffee, heady as tobacco, dark as earth), allowing her lust to coil within her like the muscles of a tiger before it strikes. Finally, when she could bear it no longer, she’d clasped him to herself with all her strength, breathing him in as a drowning person might inhale a deep, delicious, life-giving draught of air. — from Almost a Gentleman
In a romantic French inn, two strangers lock eyes across the room. A mutual seduction, conducted over food that’s almost as delicious as what awaits them later that night:
The morsel of tart passed through her lips in a cloud of fluffy whipped cream…. She paused, now, to watch him bring his fork to
his lips again; he’d moved closer to the table now and she could see… he was looking into her eyes…. She felt herself tempted to eat more and more slowly. To flirt with downcast eyelashes from behind a napkin pressed to her lips… sucking sweetness from the apples and raisins, sinking her teeth into buttery crust, licking up any unctuous morsel of cream that might have stuck to her lips. — from The Slightest Provocation
I wrote in my last post about the gift basket I’m offering at Brenda Novak’s Auction for Diabetes Research, which I’m filling with lovely scented items that evoke the hottest or tenderest moments from my books — as well as copies of the books themselves.
Because my characters all love to eat, cook, seduce, and create multi-sensory pleasure for their lovers, as I like to do for my readers. So what could be an apter donation to this wonderful cause than Pam Rosenthal’s Sense and Sensuality Gift Basket?
But the auction ends at the end of the month. So hurry and place your bid!
I’ve got a lot to do these next weeks, so I’m extending my current contest to the end of the month. It’s in honor of the mass-paperback reissue of The Slightest Provocation.
And do check out the amazing prize — a full complement of books from a bevy of brilliant, beautiful history hoydens.
And also do check out the gift basket I’m offering at Brenda Novak’s Auction — which also ends at the end of this month. It’s chock full of beautifully scented products to match the themes in my books, and it’s called (what else?) Sense and Sensuality.
Oh, and congratulations to Liz Fichera, who recently won a copy of The Slightest Provocation, for her comments on my First Sale essay at the wonderful romance blog DearAuthor.com
Will write soon about our terrific trip to Mexico and what I’m thinking about otherwise.
But meanwhile, here are some nice links, both to the Dear Author blog. One about my first sale, and one about a subject very dear to my heart — a (mostly) reader discussion about whether folks read the erotic scenes or not.
Do you?
Blogging today on a subject most dear to me, over at History Hoydens.
Do come by and tell me what you think.
… have a certain wonderful kind of gorgeousness about them, don’t you think? 
Or so my husband Michael has been telling me for decades — since way before 1989, when Kathryn Bigelow made Blue Steel.
But there was eye (and mind) candy for all at the Oscars night before last.
What about you? Comments welcome, about the winners, the movies, the dresses, the longtime cherished crushes.
And, btw, check out this brilliant piece about Avatar.
