Winter Movie Time, y'all!

The Fictionista


It’s that time of year again. 

Not the Holidays!

It’s winter movie time!!

After a summer of big blockbusters that were long on plot, short on character development, we reach the time of the year when the studios bring out the big guns. Award season is just around the corner, (award fashions!!!) and studios want members to see their favorites before they begin voting.

Here’s a list of movies I’m looking forward to:

The Hunger Games-Catching Fire: Read and loved the books and enjoyed the first movie. I’ve heard the second is even better and I can’t wait to see Jennifer Lawrence kick some ass.

Out of the Furnace: The commercials for that movie scare me. That’s a place I would never want to be stranded. I don’t care if Zoe Saldana is there or not.

American Hustle: Great actors in decked out in 70s disco gear? I’m so there.

In the next few weeks, with family visiting and school-less kids, you’ll want a break from all the “togetherness.” J Go see a movie. Get a bucket of popcorn, x-tra butter (holiday calories don’t count), a cherry cola Icee and immerse yourself in a visual treat.

What movies are you looking forward to?

Here’s wishing you and yours a safe and loving holiday season!

Tracey Livesay's debut novel, The Billionaire's Socialite Bride, will be published by Entangled Publishing in February 2014.  She blogs here on the third Monday of every month. If you like the flavor she's bringing, you can check out her blog, Mimosas at Midnight or Like her Facebook page.

Thank You, Twilight!

As I was preparing my blog post for this month, I saw one that I drafted last November and never posted. Do I wait another six months or do I post it now? The sun is shining brightly through the window and I can hear my kids playing in the backyard...

***

What am I thankful for?

An incredible husband, three wonderful children, supportive friends and a loving family. I'm really very blessed.


But let's get real.

I'm thankful for the dream Stephenie Meyers had of a boy and a girl laying in a pretty meadow, a dream that turned into the Twilight story.

I'm not ashamed to say I'm thankful for every moment I was able to slip away into the town of Forks and lust over a vampire and a werewolf. I'm thankful for the screaming matches between me (a real person) and Bella (a fictional character) because it meant I was invested in the story I was reading. I'm thankful for the movie franchise and the people in charge of casting, for giving me the delicious eye candy known as Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. (It took me a couple of years to get over my guilt about the latter one--he was so young! He's 20 now- guilt be-gone.)

I'm thankful for the last movie in the Twilight series, although I'm sad that they're gone. [I'll relive every glorious (and not so glorious) moment on blu-ray. :-) ]

But mostly, I'm thankful for a set of books which introduced a new generation of girls to reading and hopefully, to reading romance.

This past weekend, I was thankful for other Twilight fans who joined me at the movie theatre for the Twilight Saga Marathon, all of the movies, back to back, leading up to the release of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2. It was so much fun, to be surrounded by true fans. We laughed, shared stories, cried and gasped. People are not shy about making fun of these movies, so to be with other women who felt like I did was liberating, and the camaraderie was quick and strong.

When the credits rolled, I was reluctant to leave the theatre, feeling that this was truly the end of an era. But I don't regret any moment of the past four years spent as a Twi-Mom. It was a blast.

I can't wait for the new story that will capture my imagination and love as thoroughly and completely as the Twilight Saga.

Happy Thanksgiving!   Enjoy a beautiful spring day!

Merging Holiday Traditions

I loved Christmas when I was a kid. I wish I could say it had something to do with the religious aspects, but it was the presents, the toys. It was the best time of the year because I got more toys than I could conceivably play with... although I did give it my best effort.

In our family, we opened gifts on Christmas morning. During the night, while we slept, Santa brought our gifts and left them out for us. There were four of us kids, and we all had our special spot. Mine was the single chair in the living room. When I came down Christmas morning, my chair would be covered with toys and clothes. Not wrapped, just neatly laid out.  The year I got a new bike it was parked next to my chair. The same with the chalkboard I received the following year. It was like a party. And later, after my parents woke and got their coffee, we attacked the wrapped gifts under the tree; the ones we'd gotten each other. It was a wonderful experience and although I couldn't put it in words then, when I got older I knew I wanted that same experience for my children.

My first week of law school I met the man who would become my husband. Now, this blog post is not the place for THAT story, but we were inseparable from that moment on. Christmases during the years we dated and the ones after we married, before children, we spent rotating between our two families. He was surprised the first holiday he spent with my family to learn we opened gifts on Christmas morning.

His family opened gifts on Christmas Eve!

As I expressed my incredulity, he went on to share his childhood experience of opening gifts at night on Christmas Eve. And all of his gifts from Santa were wrapped and nestled under the tree. I smiled indulgently, but I knew in my heart that if he was lucky enough to spend his life with me, our children would follow my family's traditions, not his weird ones.

Ten years later, we had a choice to make. We had three children and one was old enough to understand Christmas and look forward to it. We'd continued visiting our families during the holidays, but we both knew it was time to start our own family tradition, and that meant staying at home.

And settling the long debate of Christmas Eve versus Christmas.

We both had valid reasons for our preference and they were backed by years of emotions and memories. It wasn't easy, but we had to do what was best for the family we created, not the ones we grew up with. And in the end, we came up with a compromise that has since become our family tradition. We open gifts on Christmas morning, but they are all wrapped and nestled under the tree, even the ones from Santa.

From the W3 family to yours... Happy Holidays!!

What are some of your favorite Holiday traditions?

Tracey Livesay
True Love in black & white
www.traceylivesay.com
Mimosas at Midnight
Twitter: @tlivesay
Facebook: TraceyLivesayAuthor

My First Taste

If you are the parent of young children, you mark the end of the summer season with your offspring's return to school. I am no different. Tomorrow is the big day. And not just because my kids return to school, but because my youngest starts all-day kindergarten.


I'm free! After nine years of staying at home with my children, I'm free. And ready to devote all that extra time to my writing. In honor of this auspicious occasion, I am reposting a blog I wrote about my introduction into the world of reading romance.


Enjoy.


When I was 11 years old, my parents opened a BBQ and Seafood restaurant. I worked there every afternoon after school and made $35 a week. This was the first time I made any "real" money on my own and I knew exactly how I was going to spend it: gummy bears and books.


There was a new bookstore in town and I begged my dad to take me. With my first paycheck I bought a Nancy Drew book. Not the Nancy Drew I grew up reading (in hardcover solving the "Secret in the Old Attic.") But a new Nancy in the Nancy Drew Files. I bought the first one, "Secrets Can Kill." For the first time, Nancy was on the cover with **gasp** a boy instead of a clue. Nancy was a teenager who dated and used her ballet technique to fight bad guys!


I cruised along for a few months, happy on the high Nancy gave me. I got a little bit of mystery, a little bit of teenage love. It was all good. And then my parents hired a new waitress for the restaurant, Angie. Angie was pretty, funny and probably the star of every party she attended. She acted like a grown-up and was the coolest girl I knew.


One afternoon, Angie sidled up to me, a purple and white paperback in her hand.

"Hey Tracey," she cooed. "Whatcha doin?"

"Reading." Angie was always nice to me even though it was clear we were from two different worlds: Cheerleaderville (her) and the Nerdverse (me).

"I brought this for you. Thought you might like it." She casually tossed me the book and I watched as it slid down the counter to settle before me.


The first thing I noticed was the man and woman embracing on the cover. Nancy was usually next to a boy, but they weren't touching. And this wasn't a boy, it was a man, baby, yeah!-- with a mustache and everything. It was a Silhouette Romance, the words in white and cursive.

I immediately set aside my Sweet Valley High and began the first chapter. I was introduced to the characters and some of their issues which, at the time, were a little over my head. A few chapters in, I hit my first intimate scene.

There was kissing with tongue! And he **gulp** circled her nipple and then he **whispers** got hard!

Holy cow! I couldn't believe I was allowed to read this stuff. (I probably wasn't but I wasn't about to check.) And to top it all off, they lived happily ever after. (Just what a teenage girl wants to hear- give it up to the boy and he'll love you forever.) When I closed that first book, I needed another right away. I'd had my first taste. And I was hooked.

Like most addicts (I know this from movies, not personally) I quickly outgrew my first dealer. Angie was able to provide me a few more, but she was small-time. She told me about this weekly flea market and even mentioned to my stepmom that she might find some great antiques there. That Saturday morning, my stepmom found great deals. And I found dealers vendors who sold older romance novels for twenty-five cents a book! Good-bye $35. I bought as many books as I could carry and the following week I brought my backpack so I could purchase even more.

I read on the bus to and from school. I hid books in my textbooks and read during lectures. I sometimes skipped lunch and read in the library. In between taking orders at the restaurant, my nose was stuck in a book. And on the third Sunday of each month, when I ushered in church and could sit away from my family, I hid a book in the hymnal and read during the sermon.

Although the addiction had me hard, I knew there was more to my life. Even at 11, things were expected of me. I was going to graduate high school, go to college, attend medical school and become a pediatrician. (I changed course along the way--it became law school and public defender.) I would burn out at the rate I was going. I had to scale back. I became a functioning addict. In fact, before launching my website, most people in my life probably had no idea how important romance novels were to me.

Today, I'm finally proud to stand up and proclaim, "My name is Tracey I'm addicted to romance novels."

I don't want help; I don't think it's a problem. I want to wallow in it. And try to hook as many people as possible.



How were you introduced to your drug genre of choice?

Tracey Livesay is the author of sexy, contemporary romance novels with alpha males and smart females. You can find her at her other blog "Mimosas @ Midnight", on Twitter @tlivesay, and on Facebook at Tracey LivesayAuthor. You can read her column, Fictionistas, every 3rd Monday of the month.

Tracey Livesay: your destination for True Love... in black & white.