clipped from www.theonion.com SAN FRANCISCO—After gently unfastening the elastic strap keeping his dearest musings safe from prying eyes, little literary artiste Evan Stansky penned a few more darling thoughts into his clothbound Moleskine notebook Wednesday. “These are much higher quality than the notebooks you find at CVS,” lilted the auteur, who couldn’t be bothered to use—dare it be said—a journal of lesser craftsmanship or pedigree, or one not famously used by such legendary artists as van Gogh and Hemingway. “They’re a little more expensive, but I try to write on both sides so I don’t go through them as quickly.” At press time, the princely scribe was seen finishing his apricot jasmine tea, asking a mere mortal sitting nearby to watch his literary accoutrements, and then prancing off to the Starbucks powder room, light as a feather.

October 21st, 2009 Kathleen O'Reilly Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Ah, Congress, Congress, Congress… Why do you amuse me with your continual antics? Is there something in the oath of office that says, “I must give comedians fodder for jokes.”

October 16th, 2009 Kathleen O'Reilly Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Sometimes odd things crack me up.  You all might have noticed that I’ve been absent from like, EVERYWHERE. It’s because I’m like, you know, writing.  I’ll return more regularly in December, but I saw this today, and it’s making me laugh (in a dark way).  And most things that make me laugh I want to share.

So, you’ve seen the foiled terrorist plot to bomb NYC?  Well, MSNBC is reporting that the terrorist were hitting up beauty stores for hydrogen peroxide and nail polish remover.  Beauty supply?  Are you kidding?  First, we have flight schools, and now Al Queda is like, We will attack them where they curl up and dye

So, my mind starts to wander and I can see Crystal from Jersey who works at Miss Annie’s Beauty Supply, calling into the FBI.  “Listen, I got those guys, and frankly, it’s very freaky.  They’re buying us out of peroxide, and everybody knows that you can’t just go BLONDE when you’re that tan.  And nail polish remover! So I ask this bearded Joey, I’m saying, you should try a little something metallic on those nails, and he gives me this long glare, and I’m only trying to help, and he starts muttering something that I don’t understand, and I’m thinking, these are no fashionista here.  And later,  so I’m telling Carlo, and he says, they’re going to bomb us.  They’re going to take all those chemicals and bomb us to hell.  And I tell him that that’s just all that conspiracy theory crap and he’s been sniffing his paint for a little too long.  And he says to me, I swear to God, Crystal.  You gotta call it in.  And I told him I didn’t want to call it in, because I don’t want the FBI breathing down my posterior, as if this world doesn’t have enough Big Brother, but Carlo has got me thinking, and I talk to Dawneen and she’s giving me the look, and I think, could it be?  Have the terrorists infiltrated Miss Annie’s Beauty Supply?  And so here I am…. Hold please.”

So first of all, from a purely practical standpoint, am I going to have to submit my driver’s license every time I buy nail polish remover?  And the next thing, is OMG, this would make an AWESOME TV show!  It’d be like Law & Order, Natural Beauty Haircare and WMD Unit.  And all the cops would be all tough and serious, and all the beauty supply operatives would be popping their bubble gum and trying to make over all the lawyers?

I just needed to share.

September 25th, 2009 Kathleen O'Reilly Posted in New York State of Mind | No Comments »

Nothing like new technology!

DailyWritingTips is a handy dandy little place to go to.  And as most of you know, I’m a word collector.  Yesterday’s post at DWT as words for…  nonsense words.  Any romance writer will have need to words to describe non-sense words, because in arguements between the sexes, there are myriad opportunities for the hero to puzzle at the heroine and think to himself…  “That’s just so much… insert nonsense word here…”    My favorite one is tripe, although I think it takes a certain sophisticate to use ‘tripe’ in an ordinary conversation.    And I can totally see a heroine, slack-jawed at the hero’s reasoning, thinking to herself:  “That’s a cock and nuts take on life if I ever heard it.”

September 10th, 2009 Kathleen O'Reilly Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

clipped from gizmodo.com $130,000. That’s how much Waldo—an autonomous underwater robot from the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida—costs. Now they have to find it, and the bloody thing doesn’t even wear a white and red striped sweater.

September 8th, 2009 Kathleen O'Reilly Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

clipped from www.mediabistro.com Here’s more from the article: “One house she has talked to is Kensington Publishing; a source says Friedman is interested in doing a deal with Kensington because of its extensive backlist of romance titles. ‘She seems to think romance is where the future is, and the money,’ says the source.”

August 27th, 2009 Kathleen O'Reilly Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

clipped from mashable.com Earlier this morning we reported that Twitter () may have played a role in generating box office revenue for Inglourious Basterds. The so-called “Twitter Effect” has also been credited with sinking Bruno on day two and giving District 9 an added box office boost.

August 24th, 2009 Kathleen O'Reilly Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

I’m posting at the Blazeauthors blog today. Taking an informal survey on the whys of reading romance and has the why changed and why the why has changed….

August 24th, 2009 Kathleen O'Reilly Posted in Blogroll, Reading Matters | No Comments »

This week, the new Quentin Tarantino movie opened #1 at the box office, raking in $37.6M, which isn’t blockbuster numbers, but I was surprised. For those who haven’t read the storyline, here’s the synopsis:

“Inglourious Basterds” begins in German-occupied France, where Shosanna Dreyfus(Mélanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as “The Basterds,” Raine’s squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich.

So, I’m thinking, is it:
a) World War II – Nazi evil, die suckah!
b) Brad Pitt
c) Quentin Tarantino
d) everything else sucked and people really wanted to see a movie

I really did love Pulp Fiction, but I’m thinking d) on this one. We watched Defiance a couple of weeks ago, and I’m sorry, but I’ll take Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber over Brad Pitt any day. Feel free to debate and discuss the artistic merits of BP vs DC and LS.

And also watched Sum of All Fears a couple of days ago, and I realized how energy Liev Schreiber brings to a role. Absolutely nothing to do with anything, but I noted it.

August 24th, 2009 Kathleen O'Reilly Posted in Newsflash | No Comments »

clipped from www.fastcompany.com Amazon’s just filed a number of patents that point to the inevitable but perhaps undesirable expansion of advertising onto its much-vaunted Kindle e-reader. If it happens, would you tolerate in-book or in-magazine embedded ads?

August 9th, 2009 Kathleen O'Reilly Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »