As expected, Simon & Schuster sent out a press release with the announcement that Hillary Clinton will be writing a new Memoir.
Someone get my smelling salts.
Clinton had mentioned in an interview in January that she was working on a memoir. The book comes amidst increasing speculation that Clinton is considering a run for president in 2016.
Roger Ebert on Writing
I saw this article over at GalleyCat and decided to share because I’ve always thought any writing tips from anyone who’s been successful are valuable. In other words, unless a writer has actually had either literary or financial success (the two are not mutually exclusive), I’m less prone to take their advice. And there’s plenty of advice going around the Interwebs these days about writing that should be taken with that proverbial grain of salt.
The film critic also wrote a number of essays and posts about the writing life, sharing some valuable advice for all writers. To celebrate his memory, we’ve collected some of our favorite Ebert quotes.
You can read more here, where there are more links. I know very little about Ebert, except what I could find with a simple search. But it was interesting to learn this:
At age 50, Ebert married trial attorney Charlie “Chaz” Hammelsmith (formerly Chaz Hammel-Smith) in 1992.[20][102] He explained in his memoir, Life Itself, that he “would never marry before [his] mother died,” as he was afraid of displeasing her.
My mom’s dream come true. Just ask Tony. However, I do find it interesting that Ebert was a “bachelor” for so long. Like I said, I know little about his personal life.
And this is more interesting:
He was a longtime friend of, and briefly dated, Oprah Winfrey, who credited him with persuading her to syndicate The Oprah Winfrey Show,[107] which became the highest-rated talk show in American television history.
I never knew this either.
But I did find his comments on gay marriage, here. It’s actually very insightful.
I must have heard about gay marriage sometime in the 1970s. It made an impression when it was mentioned by my mother. We had never discussed homosexuality. Neither of my parents did. Oh it might be observed, “Look at that Liberace! He sure is queer.” It wasn’t a criticism so much as a wonderment, as if he were playing with three hands.
Before I continue, notice the way the word “queer” is used above. It’s a good example of why I absolutely refuse to embrace the “Q” in LGBT. But I don’t take offense to the way Ebert used it in the above quote, because anything gay in the 1970’s was considered somewhat shocking for most people. Aside from the fact that Ebert seemed to be unnaturally close to his mother, the piece I linked to really just tells a story of how things were/are. And, another reason why I wanted to check out his writing advice.
Virgin Billionaire Tie-In with Pretty Man
Last evening a reader e-mailed me about The Virgin Billionaire series. There are ten stand alone novels in that series, you can read more about here, where I’ve listed them in consecutive order. What the reader wanted to know was if I would ever write a book where I cross over with characters from one series to another. In this case, she wanted to know if I would ever write a novel with Jase and Luis, from the VB books, along with Len and Jim, from the Chase of a Lifetime books.
I don’t have any plans for that right now, but I won’t say I’ll never do it. And I have brought characters from previous books into later books without really going into any detailed explanations here on the blog. So I figured I’d start mentioning these things as they come to me. As strange as it sounds, it’s hard for me to recall all the characters in all the books and stories I’ve written unless I go back and research them myself. I tend to move forward with everything in life, and once a book is released, I’m on to the next project. Unfortunately, some books suffer as a result, and I’m remiss in giving out information.
But I do remember, and well, adding the main characters from Pretty Man to certain books in the Virgin Billionaire series. I did this on purpose, because I knew Pretty Man would never become a series and I liked the characters myself. Pretty Man is a loose, sometimes campy, parody of the old movie, Pretty Woman, and it’s not fanfic by any means. If anything it’s anti-fanfic, and it’s my own statement on how gay characters were never in any romance films in the past…and aren’t in many now. And, Pretty Woman, the film itself, is a take off on the Cinderella trope anyway.
I decided to incorporate Josh and Roland from Pretty Man into the Virgin Billionaire series. That’s right, if you’ve read the VB books and haven’t read Pretty Man, Josh and Roland were the main characters in Pretty Man. Josh and Roland are Luis and Jase’s best friends. J & R provided me with a way to show how different L & J are when it comes to sex and gay couples, because J & R are into a more open-concept marriage, where L & J are not.
I also incorporated Hillary and Justin into the VB books, and made Hillary Luis’ best friend and Justin is the best friend of Jase’s son from a previous marriage. It’s all very General Hospital, and just as dishy as it sounds. But more than that, if you are familiar with these circles in the gay male community, especially in New York, wealthy gay men often do cross paths more often than not. How do I know this? Because I’m a gay man with a gay brother who travels in these circles. I didn’t guess.
I also incorporated the two main characters (can’t remember their names right now) from Jonah Sweet of Delancey Street into a book in the bad boy billionaire series, The Wall Street Shark. They happen to come into contact with the mc of The Wall Street Shark at a pivotal moment in his life when he’s wondering if he’ll ever be as happy as these two strange gay men he sees walking down Delancey St with a young child between them.